Oh, Doctor
by hellywellylovesdinosaurs
Summary: What if the Doctor never recovered from his loss of Rose? Would he have met Donna, or even met the Master? A fanfiction on what I believe would have happened if the Doctor was at a loss without Rose.
1. Chapter 1

**What if the Doctor never recovered from his loss of Rose? Would he have met Martha, or even traveled with Donna? A fanfiction on what I believe would have happened if the Doctor was at a loss without Rose. Please review!**

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. That is simply inconceivable! However, I do own the character of Silver Andromeda Danders.

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><p>The alien bar was quite busy. It was nighttime on planet Macron-221b, and there were quite a few aliens drifting through the dim building. Some sat at tables pushed along the wall. Some wandered lazily throughout the room, gripping their drinks protectively. Some sat at the bar's counter, sipping at their drinks as the bartender lazily wiped a few dusty glasses.<p>

The Doctor sat in the high chair, his elbows propped up on the counter. His eyes remained unfocused as he stared at the multiple glasses displayed evenly on the shelves. He had a tall glass of special rum imported from Zankrania. It'd been given to him almost an hour earlier, but it was still filled to the rim.

He was thinking. He was not the same Doctor two years ago. He was lonely, depressed, and slightly confused. Of course, the days were never exactly boring. He still chased aliens. He went to strange lands. He still had his lovely Tardis.

And this made the Doctor angry. Frustrated. Slightly guilty. Here he was, sitting in a bar drinking imported rum when he'd broken the heart of one Rose Marion Tyler.

The Doctor clenched the glass in his hand tightly as he recalled the day. He'd never even said goodbye.

"_You're dead. Officially. Back home. So many people died that day and you've gone missing." _

There was a strange fire that danced in the Doctor's eyes as he thought. He remembered the sad and floundering look in Rose Tyler's eyes as she nodded. Accepting the fact that she was now presumably dead. And that people would mourn for her.

The Doctor brought the rim of the glass to his bottom lip.

"_You're on the list of the dead." _

The Doctor let his lip run against the edge of the cup as he recalled Rose's response to the situation. An image of Rose crying flashed in his mind. The Doctor nibbled at the edge of the cup, the glass rattling against his teeth.

"_And yet here you are, living a life day after day. The one adventure I can never have." _

With his fingers drumming against the wooden countertop, the Doctor flicked his tongue against the rim of the drink, almost glaring at anybody who dared to look at him. How dare they watch something so intimate? So personal?

With a small _clank, _the Doctor slammed the drink down against the table.

"_Am I ever going to see you again?" choked Rose, her voice a slight tremor. _

"_You can't," the Doctor replied painfully. _

The Doctor played with his drink, letting it tilt back and forth in his hand. A few drops of the expensive alcohol slipped onto the counter, and the bartender pensively watched the Doctor out of the corner of his eye.

"_Then what're you going to do?" Rose asked, wiping blonde hair out of her eyes. _

"_I'll go back to the Tardis. Same old life. Last of the Time Lords," the Doctor said, managing a weak grin. _

"_On your own?" _

_The Doctor nodded. _

A few aliens stared as the Doctor growled under his breath.

"_I…" Rose choked back a sob. She looked down at her shoes, weeping and hiccupping. She seemed to not know what to say. Then, with a small bob of her chin, she looked up at the Doctor and slowly enunciated, "I love you." _

The Doctor gripped the glass ferociously.

_The Doctor smiled a bit. "Quite right, too," he said, his voice almost a whisper. _

_Rose smiled at the Doctor hopefully, though her tear-stained cheeks revealed it all. She was heartbroken. _

"_And I suppose if it's my last chance to say it." The Doctor paused for a split second, his eyes locking onto Rose's. "Rose Tyler…" _

_Then, Rose disappeared from his gaze. Bad Wolf Bay was replaced by the soft orange glow of the Tardis, and a small tear slid down the Doctor's cheek. _

With a swift swipe, the Doctor had the glass in his right hand. He tilted his head back and let the alcohol slide down his throat. Conversations in the bar stopped as patrons turned to stare at the Doctor. He'd seemed to shy away from the alcohol a few moments ago, yet now, he was gulping down the rum as if his life depended on it.

The Doctor audibly gasped as he pulled away from the glass. It was empty now. He'd drunken all of it.

The Doctor turned to the bewildered bartender standing behind the counter.

"Give me another."

o.O.o

"Silver. Silver," the Doctor moaned as he was dragged toward his Tardis.

"Doctor. Shut up," growled the girl. She gripped the Doctor's upper body with as much force she could muster and half dragged, half carried him to the blue police box. The girl kicked open the door with her foot and dumped the Doctor on the floor of the console.

"Silver," the Doctor moaned once more, flipping over on his belly and letting his chin rest on the grating.

The girl merely rolled her eyes. She was Silver Andromeda Danders, the Doctor's companion and friend, but most of all, she was his babysitter.

"Doctor, you're drunk," Silver said disgustedly. She was an eighteen year old high school graduate from California, with an American accent that stood out prominently against the constant British translations from the Tardis.

"Silver. It hurts so much," the Doctor said sadly, rolling over on his side. Silver merely sighed.

When she'd first met the Doctor, he'd been drunk. They met in a small café in California. Silver had pitied the poor man who seemed so lost and confused, so she dragged him back to her mother's house and watched over him.

When inquired about his purpose for being drunk so early in the afternoon, the Doctor had merely shrugged and said he was a tourist. Silver found this amusing. She lived in a small, unknown suburb in northern California. Tourists did not come to suburbs in northern California.

So, after constant pestering and annoying of the sorts, the Doctor finally admitted it. He was a time traveler, and he was looking for somebody to accompany him into the vast unknown.

Of course, Silver had accepted. It was the summer after her high school graduation, and she was not going to spend her break sitting in bed sleeping all morning. Even though the thought of leaving her family and her boyfriend scared her, she instantly said yes when the Doctor invited her into his Tardis.

Silver did not know much about the Doctor. He was a good-looking man, but she was in love with her boyfriend and anyways, he was much too old for her. Soon, Silver found herself battling aliens and running for her life. Still, there were nights like these, when the Doctor dropped her off at some nearby attraction while he spent the night drinking away his sorrows.

A few hours later, she'd find the Doctor at the nearest bar half dead with a very high bill. She'd flash the Doctor's psychic paper at the disgruntled bartender, and somehow transport the drunken Time Lord back to the Tardis.

Silver learned to never ask about these nights. Whenever she bought it up, but Doctor would become depressed and despondent, sighing and saying that it was nothing. Then, he'd retreat back into the depths of his Tardis and remain there for a few hours.

Bending down, Silver slipped her arms under the Doctor's and hauled him up. However, when she tried to stand him on his feet, he wobbled a bit before slumping back down like a rag doll. Silver sighed. She'd have to drag him to bed.

Luckily, the Tardis accommodated nicely and made sure the Doctor's room was easy to find. With a few grunts and many loud expletives, Silver managed to slip the red trainers off of the Doctor's feet and haul him into bed.

"Silver," the Doctor moaned as the young girl struggled to keep his long legs off of the floor.

"What?"

"Where's Rose?" the Doctor asked helplessly. Silver hesitated. She'd never heard of Rose.

"Who?"

"Rose," the Doctor groaned, "I need her! I need Rose!"

"Doctor, I-"

"Rose," the Doctor moaned once more before rolling on his belly and burying his head into his pillow, sobbing. Silver, not knowing what to do, backed away from the crying time traveler and turned off the lights, hoping the darkness would silence the Doctor's cries.

o.O.o

"Ungh?" the Doctor muttered incoherently, gripping the side of his head. He reached over and looked at the digital clock on his bedside table. It was three in the morning in London right now. The Doctor groaned. His head pounded and he felt like throwing up.

The Doctor eased himself out of bed and forced himself to walk out his bedroom door and towards the kitchen. The Tardis hummed angrily, reprimanding him for getting drunk, but the Doctor muttered some words and the Tardis stopped trying to talk to him. It was no use. He did not converse with her very much these days.

When he reached the kitchen, the Doctor instantly went to the cabinets, hoping to find some medicine that would help the wicked pounding in his head, but he found nothing. In a mere two months, he'd managed to wipe out an entire supply of tablets.

With a frustrated growl, the Doctor shut the cabinet door behind him and sat down at the kitchen table, contenting himself with a cold glass of water. He noticed a small plate on the table. On the fine china sat two large pills with a note that said "Eat up, drunk." The Doctor chuckled to himself and downed the pills with his water.

Despite her constant nagging and nosing around, the Doctor quite liked his current companion. She was more bearable than some of the others, and was lasting longer, too.

The Doctor had had multiple companions before meeting Silver. After his tearful goodbye with Rose, he'd met Donna Noble. After saving her from an army of creepy Santas and a giant spider alien, he'd asked the red-haired woman to come. Much to his surprise and dismay, Donna had declined. She did, however, ask him of a favor. She asked him to find someone.

And the Doctor did. He went to Las Vegas, Nevada, and found a blonde-haired girl named Valerie. Valerie was a dancer in a casino, and she was much taken by the Doctor. Valerie's blonde hair reminded the Doctor painfully of Rose, even though Valerie's hair was obviously dyed with chemicals. Within three minutes of meeting each other, the Doctor had Valerie in his Tardis.

Valerie, of course, had flirted with the Doctor. She tried everything, in fact, to get his attention. She made his coffee, she grabbed his hand, snuggled with him. In fact the Las Vegas dancer had once even hopped into the Doctor's bed and tried to sleep with him, much to the Doctor's chagrin. Soon, Valerie realized her hopes were useless, so she asked to leave. The Doctor left her in New York with some clothing and a large sum of money.

After Valerie, the Doctor broke down. He recruited companions left and right, desperate to find the happiness he'd once had with the love of his life. He invited more people than necessary into his Tardis, only to find them unsuitable.

Some companions did stay longer than others. They were usually the ones who could deal with his constant pain and loss. However, the idea of babysitting a depressed Time Lord was often too much, and the poor woman would pack her bags, asking to leave.

Silver lasted longer than the others. She'd been on his Tardis for six months now, and besides her quirky attitude and adventurous idealism, she was a good friend and understood the Doctor's boundaries. She made sure he did not go overboard. She let him drink his sorrows away. That was all the Doctor asked for. Silver was a good friend, but he could never love her like he loved Rose.

"Doctor?" a small voice piped up. The Doctor looked up and found Silver standing at the doorway. Her black hair was loosely tied back with an elastic, and her brown eyes seemed to wander throughout the kitchen. She had on an oversized shirt and sweats with a blanket thrown over her shoulders.

"Silver," the Doctor said, grinning. He stood up, ignoring the pounding in his head, and reached for the young girl.

"Doctor, who was Rose?" Silver asked, pushing the Doctor away.

The Doctor paused, staring at Silver. How did she know?

"You mentioned her in your room. When you were drunk."

"Oh," the Doctor replied bluntly. He did not like it when Silver mentioned his constant outings to bars.

"Who was she?"

The Doctor sighed. "She was a friend. A really good friend."

Silver gazed at the Doctor. He was hunched up against the table, holding the glass of water tightly in his hand as he stared at nothing in particular.

"Doctor?"

"Hm?"

"You loved her, didn't you?"

"Yes. I did. I loved her very much."


	2. Chapter 2

Rose Tyler sat at her desk, rubbing her temples. Papers were scattered throughout her office, a large room with huge windows and a great view of the city. It was currently three in the afternoon, and large parades of cars honked their way down the busy London road, struggling to push through the huge wave of traffic.

Flipping through a few documents, Rose pursed her lips. Her plans were failing. Her experiments were unsuccessful, the results looking worse every time they were sent to her office. Although everybody at Torchwood knew Rose had good intentions, they were beginning to doubt their leader. After four months of ineffective trials, even Rose's most trusted researchers were beginning to worry.

Rose sighed and ran her hands through her blonde hair. It'd gotten longer. In fact, many changes had happened to Rose after she was ripped from the Doctor. She was not running as much anymore. Instead, Rose had gotten a job at the parallel universe's version of Torchwood. Because of her credentials and past experience, Rose had quickly been elevated to a high rank.

Then, the stars began going out. It happened gradually, at first. Scientists merely overlooked the information. But soon, the situation became crucial. Torchwood was contacted, and of course, the first person assigned to the job was Rose Marion Tyler. She conducted researches and performed experiments, and soon, she told her superiors of her findings. They were going to need a doctor. And not just any doctor. They needed the Doctor.

So, with much hesitance, Torchwood allowed Rose Tyler to design and invent her dimension cannon. She was promised six months. She now had eight weeks left. After that, Torchwood would be taking the matter into its own hands. Rose spent sleepless nights struggling to fix together a dimension cannon with Torchwood's technology. However, after four months of failures, even Rose was beginning to despair. She only had two months left. Two months was not a very long time.

"Miss Tyler?" a light voice hesitantly said. Rose looked up from her paperwork and saw a young woman standing at the doorway.

"Oh, Jessie. Sorry. I wasn't paying attention. What is it?"

"Something you might want to see," Jessie said, her brown hair swishing over her shoulders.

"What is it?" Rose asked suspiciously, her eyes narrowing.

Jessie took a deep breath. "It's the cannon. They think they've had a breakthrough."

o.O.o

Rose walked down the crisp hallway, her high heels clicking against the crystalline floors. Her secretary, Jessie, followed in her wake, struggling to keep up with her boss's long strides. Rose dressed for efficiency, with black pants, a white blouse, and a black blazer. Her blonde hair flew behind her as she swiftly walked toward the laboratory, trying not to run in excitement. It had been a while since their last major discovery.

"Miss Tyler," Jessie said awkwardly, "I'm trying to tell you. They don't want any-" But Rose was already pushing over the doors of the laboratory. Scientists looked up from their work and quickly stood up in respect and surprise. Rose nodded to a few people before settling her eyes on a thin, wiry man with dark blonde hair.

"M-Miss Tyler, we weren't expecting you for another hour," the man stuttered, fiddling with the collar of his white lab coat.

"I tried telling her," Jessie explained, "But she wouldn't listen."

Rose ignored the two employees and stalked up to the large object in the middle of the room. It was covered with crisp white cloth, but with a quick swipe of her hand, the fabric was on the ground and Rose was examining the item before her.

It stood on a high pedestal that blinked and beeped at the intruder. The object looked much like a large gun. Its black body shone in the light of the laboratory, and Rose's arm quivered as she lifted it off of its stand.

"Will, is it ready?" Rose asked, tilting the gun back and forth in her hand.

"Don't do that," Will said urgently. He rushed forward, his coat billowing behind him. The young scientist grabbed the dimension cannon and gingerly set it back on its pedestal. Then, he whipped around and quickly faced his boss.

"Sorry," Will apologized quickly, "We're still working on some kinks, but yeah, we got it." Will proudly stood before Rose. He was the head scientist of the experiment and was quite proud that he'd managed to get the dimension cannon working.

"It was the Void," Will explained, "We didn't know if it could stand that kind of pressure, so we kept testing it. We thought it was impossible, until Janet came up with this idea that we could use the Judoon space ship hulls and fill them with-"

As Will continued babbling on, Rose passed his excitable form and let her fingers slide over the smooth body of the dimension cannon. Will stopped talking and stared at Rose, who rested her palm on the object as if it were the dead body of a friend. She turned to Will, fire dancing in her eyes.

"When will I be able to use it?"

Will's eyes widened. "Like I said, it's still got a couple of kinks. It's dangerous. There's a small chance it might not even get you there the whole way. You could be stuck in the Void forever. We've still got to test it more and make sure it's safe."

"I don't care if I'm not safe," Rose said, never letting her eyes drop from the dimension cannon.

"But you know Torchwood will," Jessie said gently. She placed her hands on Rose's hands. "Let them run a few more tests. We want to make sure this works. Remember, we're doing this for the good of Earth. That means we want to ensure that you'll get there safely to finish your mission."

Rose sighed. She let her hands drop and turned to Will. "How long will it take for you to finish your tests?"

Will shrugged. "Don't know. Two weeks? Three at the most."

"If you aren't done in two weeks, I'm going, whether it's safe or not, understand?" Rose let her eyes linger on the dimension cannon one last time before turning her heel and walking out the door.

o.O.o

Rose sighed and sunk back in her couch. She gripped the sides of her cup and stared blankly at the unlit screen of her telly. It was six in the evening now, and the lights outside were just beginning to fade, casting the city in a deep orange hue.

The phone on the coffee table rang, making Rose jump out of her stupor. With one glance at the caller I.D., she frowned slightly and tossed the phone away from her. It landed on the carpet softly. The rings eased after a few moments, but a minute later, the constant beeping began again. Rose reached for the remote control and turned on the telly, hoping the sound from BBC's _Sherlock_ would drown out the bleeping of her phone. Unfortunately, the caller was insistent, and finally, Rose gave up. She stood up and reached for the phone.

"Hello?" Rose said as pleasantly as she could.

"Where've you been?" the caller on the other side screeched. Rose held her phone away, wincing. "I've been calling you for the past ten minutes!"

"Sorry mum," Rose sighed. She kicked her feet back on the coffee table and turned the program to mute. "I was at work."

"No you weren't," Jackie Tyler said stoutly, "I called. Jessie said that you'd left work an hour ago. Don't you go lying on me again."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, you've got no more excuses, Rose Marion Tyler," Jackie scolded, "You've been avoiding Pete and me. I haven't seen you in months! I've got reservations at that Japanese restaurant near the shops. I expect to see you there. No excuses. We're spending some quality family time tonight."

"Yes mum."

"Good," Jackie said, sounding relieved, "Meet us there at seven, alright?"

"Alright."

"Good. See you in an hour or so."

Rose sighed. "See you, too."

With a forceful jab at the phone, Rose hung up on her mother and stuffed the phone deep into her couch cushions. Then, she groaned and let her head hang back, banging against the back of the furniture.

Rose loved her mum. She really did, but soon after spending a month in Pete's huge mansion, Rose was begging for something, anything, that would keep her busy. So, Pete had let her find a job at Torchwood, and after earning herself enough money, Rose had moved away.

Rose still saw her family and friends from time to time. They visited her at work. They met up with her at social events. However, if there was one person Rose tried to stay away from, it was her mum, Jackie Tyler. After the Battle of Canary Warf, Rose felt sick watching her mother being happy with Pete. Rose wasn't jealous. She was merely guilty. She wanted to be sad and grieving over the loss of her beloved, but it was hard to do so in a house of happiness. Especially after her brother, Tony Tyler, came along.

So, Rose bought a small flat on the other side of the city and made up weak excuses whenever her mum tried to arrange a meeting. Sometimes, however, Jackie Tyler was merciless, and Rose would wear something nice to appease her mum, Pete, and of course, her young brother Tony. Tonight was one of those times.

o.O.o

"Rose! Over here!"

Rose turned around and found the whole Tyler gang – along with Mickey – sitting at a table at the far corner of the room. She smiled halfheartedly and trotted over. Chefs all around the restaurant amused and entertained their customers with their cutlery, making knives dance in the air and food fly right into the people's waiting bowls.

"What took you so long?" Jackie Tyler asked, scooting a bit to allow Rose to slide into her chair.

"Oh, I lost track of time," Rose said, waving her hand. In truth, she'd been waiting outside the restaurant, dawdling under its awning until she was at least fifteen minutes late.

"How's the job? Still working on that cannon?" Pete asked, spooning some food into his mouth.

"Oh, yeah," Rose said, "They've got it working. I'll be going in two weeks."

Everybody at the table stopped eating, their spoons poised in between their bowls and their open, gawking mouths. Tony Tyler slammed his small fists on the table and burbled at his mother, asking for more food.

"You serious?" Mickey asked, his eyes wide. Rose nodded, smiling just a bit. Pete cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with the cloth napkin.

"Rose," he began.

"I'm going, no matter what," Rose said stoutly. She glared at those seated around the table defiantly. She'd faced this conversation many times, and tonight would be no different.

"You have to think this through," Jackie said, "Don't you think it'd be wiser to send someone with more experience? Maybe Janet? Or perhaps Morgan? You three could go together."

"Mum, I'm the head of the experiment. I don't need any help," Rose said angrily. Jackie and Pete exchanged worried glances. Mickey continued chewing on his sushi, oblivious as always.

"We just want you to be safe," Jackie said gently.

"I'll be fine," Rose said, pushing away from the table a bit, "Seriously. It's not like I'm going tomorrow, is it? I'll be preparing, getting ready, that sort of thing."

"But-"

"Leave it, Mum," Rose said, her teeth clenched. For once, Jackie Tyler shut her mouth and lowered her head to her salmon. Pete stared at his wife unsurely before letting his head drop. Mickey sat in his chair, his eyes passing between Jackie and Rose desperately trying to make sense of what was going on. Tony Tyler continued to shout for more food.

"So, the weather's been nice, hasn't it?" Mickey said. At once, everybody at the table began to chat animatedly, struggling to keep the tension away from the dinner. Rose, however, remained silent and stabbed at her food indignantly.

Her family always got in the way of things. After moving in with Pete, Jackie Tyler seemed to have the notion that everybody, even her daughter, could find a new kind of happiness in this parallel world. Rose called her mother delusional. There was no desire for her to live, Rose thought, if she did not have the Doctor.

The dinner sluggishly pulled its way through. To Rose, it felt as if every smile was forced, glued on like plastic. The only consolation Rose had for coming was her brother, Tony. He was terribly spoiled by his parents. He had the same assertive behavior of his mother, while retaining the wit and responsibility of his father. Rose loved her brother.

"More," Tony demanded, slamming his hands on the table. The dishes rattled.

"Now, Tony," Jackie scolded, "Leave your sister alone."

"I'm fine," Rose quickly said, "Really. I am."

Finally, desert was eaten and dinner was paid for, thanks to Pete's oversized bank account. It was almost nine now, and Tony head wobbled a bit as Jackie swept him off of his high chair.

"We best be going. This one gets heavy when he goes to sleep," Jackie Tyler said, nodding to Tony. Rose almost thought she heard a hint of regret in her mother's voice.

"I've got work to do," Mickey said, "You know. Sontarans in Cardiff. Slitheen in Bath. That kind of stuff." Mickey worked for Torchwood, too, but he was not in the same division as Rose."

The group stepped out of the restaurant. The air was cold and nipped at everybody's noses. Rose shivered and brought her coat closer to her body.

"Well, I suppose I'll see you soon," Pete said. They stood out under the awning of the restaurant, the wind blowing hair into their faces. Mickey extended his hand and gave Pete a good shake before leaving, yelling for a taxi.

"I'll be going. I'm right around the corner," Rose said, gesturing to nowhere in particular. She turned around to leave, but felt a small tug on her arm.

"Rose," Jackie said. Her daughter turned around and raised her eyebrows.

"What?"

"It will be fine," Jackie promised, "Everything will be fine."

"Yes mum," Rose said obediently. Jackie kissed her daughter's cheek quickly before hurrying away with Pete and Tony. In a few minutes, they disappeared from view in the large hubbub of the crowd.

Rose tilted her head and looked at the night sky. Only a few stars were left in the sky. The rest were all gone. The moon was a thin sliver of white hanging in the air. People bustled around Rose, but they kept their distance. She cast a strange aura of confidence and hope.

"Two more weeks," Rose said confidently, "You can survive two more weeks." With that, Rose turned her heel and walked home.


	3. Chapter 3

"So," the Doctor said cheerfully, twirling around the Tardis, "Where do you want to go? How about the planet, Jerhoxitoa? They've got some of the best bananas in the universe! And the best part is that they're allergic to pears! Every single one of them! Can you believe it? If you come within spitting distance of a Jerhoxitoan with a pear in your hand, they start spitting green gunk! So how about it? Jerhoxitoa?"

The Doctor looked up from his monologue hopefully, only to find his companion gazing at him a bit worriedly.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I was hoping we could go somewhere more familiar," Silver said, shrugging a bit, "I don't know. I guess I just miss how… normal Earth is."

"Alright then. Where do you want to go?"

"London," Silver said confidently.

"When?"

Silver sighed. "The twenty-first century, of course."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow quizzically. "You've got all the time and space in the world, and you choose twenty-first century London."

Silver shrugged again. "I've never even been to Las Vegas, and that's only a few hours away from my home. Please, Doctor? I really want to go. Please?"

Silver clung to the Doctor's arm, begging him with small jounces and pushes. Finally, the Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Fine. We'll go to twenty-first century London."

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" Silver said, jumping up and down like an excitable puppy. The Doctor grunted and jabbed a few buttons. The Tardis began to whirr as it shifted from one place to the next.

"I really don't know why I'm passing over Jerhoxitoan bananas for you," the Doctor muttered, pulling a lever down. Silver merely giggled and skipped away to her room.

o.O.o

"Doctor," Silver said, tugging on his coat. The Doctor stopped and slowly turned around, eyes raised.

"Yes?" he said testily.

"What are chips?"

"Oh, you have got to be joking."

"No. I'm serious. I saw a sign advertising them down there." Silver gestured down the busy London street. "You guys don't sell bags of potato chips at stalls, do you?"

The Doctor groaned and brought his hand to his face hopelessly. "Honestly, you're much too American."

"What?"

Looking up, the Doctor explained slowly, "Chips are what you call french-fries. Crisps are what you call chips. It's just like everything else. Trousers are pants, the loo is the bathroom, and the lift is the… uh… the elevator."

"That's so weird," Silver said, shaking her head.

"That's so American," the Doctor quickly retorted.

"Get me some," Silver ordered authoritatively, setting her hands on her hips and raising her chin.

"You said we were only going to be here for a few hours," the Doctor said, pouting.

"A couple of chips won't hurt," Silver said, "Please?" She jumped up and down and clapped her hands giddily.

"Alright. Fine. Let me just get my psychic paper and we'll-" The Doctor stopped shortly, patting his pockets urgently. With a small groan, he slipped his hands through his hair. "I left it on the Tardis."

"Well then go get it," Silver said, nodding in the direction of the blue box.

"It's in my other suit," the Doctor said miserably, "The nice blue one I had."

"Better hurry up then," Silver said, "I'll wait here."

"Oh no! You wanted the chips. You're coming with me." The Doctor gabbed Silver by the back of her jacket and dragged her back toward the Tardis.

"Fine," Silver grumbled as the blue box came into view, sitting peacefully in a small, unnoticeable alley behind a group of buildings. The Doctor reached into his pocket and unlocked the Tardis, its doors quickly swinging open.

"Make it quick," Silver called as the Doctor disappeared down the corridor in search of his suit, "I'm hungry!"

The Doctor muttered something and quickened his pace. He knew what kind of a pickle he was in if Silver was hungry. He disappeared into the wardrobe room and sighed.

"Have you got it yet?" Silver bellowed.

"No!" he yelled back, looking over the tremendous piles of clothing in the room. He really needed to clean it up. The suit had to be somewhere in the room. He'd just worn it a week ago. Just as the Doctor was about to pick through a nearby mound of clothing, the Tardis began to shake, making the hangers in the closets rattle.

"Doctor!" Silver shrieked from the console room. The shaking became heavier. A nearby mirror almost fell on the Doctor as he quickly stepped away, tripping over a pair of bright pink shoes. He grunted, standing back up slowly. Why did they even have those in here? Carefully, the Doctor struggled to the door.

It was tricky picking his way back to the doorway. Shoes, hats, and other things fell as he sidestepped loose clothing. The Tardis pitched to the right and the Doctor went down, his knee banging against the ground.

"What's happening?" Silver yelled again, her voice shriller. The Doctor groaned and stood back up. He stumbled out the room and into the console room, where Silver stood, gripping the captain's chair for dear life. She looked positively terrified.

"What'd you do?" the Doctor yelled over the shaking. A large piece of coral grating cracked and fell down. With a small yelp, Silver's head disappeared behind the chair as the large hunk of orange plaster smashed against the ground near Silver's feet. Her head popped back up, her face pale.

"I didn't do anything!" she yelled back. The Doctor ran to the console and jabbed at a few buttons. She was telling the truth. Nothing had been touched.

As abruptly as it had started, the shaking stopped, leaving an eerie silence in its place. Silver cautiously stood up and stepped over the fallen piece of coral decoration. She hesitantly walked over to the door, but the Doctor quickly stopped her.

"Don't move," he said, looking up as Silver's hand hovered over the knob. "There could be something dangerous out there."

"It's Earth," Silver said, rolling her eyes, "What could've happened?"

"We didn't move," the Doctor said, ignoring Silver's question. He furrowed his brow. "We're in the exact same place. London. No earthquake was recorded today, right?" With a quick glance at the screen above him, the Doctor said, "Nope." He fiddled a few switches, but nothing happened.

"What do we do now?" Silver asked.

"We go outside and see what's happened," the Doctor said, twirling away from the console.

"But you said it could be dangerous," Silver pointed out.

"True," the Doctor said, "but I laugh in the face of danger. Ha, ha! See? Laughing!" Silver rolled her eyes as the Doctor jumped down and stood at the door. He placed his knob on the door and twisted it.

With a small gasp, Silver stumbled. The Doctor grabbed her by the back of her windbreaker and quickly pulled her back into the safety of the Tardis. Silver whimpered and shuffled away from the door.

London was gone, its tall buildings and bustling crowds replaced with a large expanse of black, the darkness penetrated with twinkling stars and faraway planets. A meteor lazily floated by. Silver and the Doctor stared at the large rock with wide eyes and gaping mouths.

"What happened?" Silver squeaked, her eyes wide.

"Did we move?" the Doctor asked, "Maybe I missed something." He quickly ran back to his console and checked the statistics. Nope. They were in the exact same spot they'd been a minute ago.

"Well?" Silver said, "Where are we?"

"We're in London. Well, where London used to be."

"Uh, Doctor, I'm pretty sure _that_," Silver said, pointing outside the Tardis door, "is not London."

"It's impossible," the Doctor said, leaning into the screen. His nosed bumped against the glowing monitor. With a quick swipe, the Doctor had his thick glasses balanced on the bridge of his nose as he studiously observed the readings.

"Doctor, what's happened?" Silver asked.

The Doctor looked up, his eyes large. "The Earth's been stolen."

o.O.o

Rose sat at her desk, kneading her brow worriedly. One week had passed ever since Will's promise, and he still wasn't done with his tests. She was beginning to get impatient.

"Miss Tyler?" Rose looked up and smiled at Jessie.

"Hello, Jessie. What's wrong?"

"I think you should come see this." The urgency in Jessie's voice made Rose's heart drop. She slowly stood up and smoothed her skirt.

"Is it the dimension cannon? Has something gone wrong?" Rose asked nervously.

"No, it's worse," Jessie said, "You might want to come with me."

o.O.o

"Ah, Miss Tyler, you've decided to join us. Have a seat." The balding man gestured to the empty chair in the small office. Mickey sat in an identical one, sipping at his cup of tea a bit too loudly.

"Tea?" the man asked, nodding to a small tea set on the table.

"No, thank you. Why am I here, Mr. Harrods?"

"That's what I was trying to ask," Mickey said through a mouthful of biscuits, "He wouldn't tell me until you came."

"I'm afraid this is a matter of grave importance," Mr. Harrods said, leaning back in his chair. Rose straightened her back. Mr. Harrods was the vice president of Torchwood, London. He was a very important man.

"What's happened?" Rose asked. Mickey continued to stuff pastries into his mouth.

"I'm afraid we've found something," Mr. Harrods said, "It's about five hundred miles from the edge of our atmosphere, but our readings are picking up some very odd things. The rest of the world is going beserk. There are reports of enormous Viking ships flying over Spain. Strange, pasta-like creatures are turning up in Japan. So, Mr. Smith, it'd help if you stopped stuffing your face like a starving monkey and perhaps listened to me."

Mickey's hand froze, his fingers greedily hovering over the last biscuit on the plate. With a small sigh, he relaxed and let his arms hang over the chair. Even with the vice president of Torchwood in the same room, Mickey Smith was still oblivious.

"What's happening?" Rose asked, "Is it the Rift? We haven't heard anything from Cardiff, have we?"

"No, it is not the Rift," Mr. Harrods said, "Torchwood, Cardiff, was contacted, but the Rift has been inactive for a long time. Nothing has slipped through its crack in a while."

"Maybe it's just loony people who just happen to be hallucinating," Mickey said, obviously annoyed at the absence of his pastries, "We get these sort of cases all the time, don't we? Isn't it Stephanie's team who's supposed to be taking care of this?"

"It is," Mr. Harrods said, remaining calm, "However, the situation became a bit… unmanageable when this came in."

Mr. Harrods reached under his table and revealed a large, obviously alien device. He fiddled with its levers and flipped a small switch. The sound of fuzzy static drifted from the device. However, as Mr. Harrods carefully turned a few knobs, the sound of static faded away and was replaced with a sound that sounded much like a crowd of lost, confused people.

"Listen," Mr. Harrods said, turning the knob a fraction of an inch. Rose and Mickey leaned in, their eyes wide.

Then, a loud, robot-like voice pierced through the low murmuring of the crowd and shouted, "Exterminate!"

Rose and Mickey drew back quickly. Mickey was looking a bit green, and Rose's skin was pale.

"W-Was that a Dalek?" Rose asked, bewildered.

"It's impossible! They were sucked into the Void after the Battle of Canary Warf!" Mickey argued.

"I'm afraid they've come back," Mr. Harrods said gravely, "Our systems picked it up last night. Nobody on our team knows of these Daleks better than you two. The walls of the universe are cracking, and we don't know what to do. Now, the Daleks are about five hundred miles above our atmosphere, according to our statistics, and they haven't made a move yet. However, our radar is giving us readings of over one hundred thousand space ships ready to attack."

"What do we do?" Mickey asked helplessly.

"We turn to Miss Tyler," Mr. Harrods said. Both heads instantly swiveled to Rose, who still sat in her seat with shock and dread.

"Miss Tyler," Mr. Harrods said, sighing, "We are really going to need that Doctor of yours. You will be using the dimension cannon tomorrow, whether it's safe or not. He is our last resort. Do not fail."

Rose swallowed thickly. "Yes, sir," she said quietly.


	4. Chapter 4

"Doctor, where are we going?" Silver asked worriedly as the Doctor rushed about the Tardis. His mouth was nothing but a thin line and his eyes danced as he ran back and forth, flicking switches and balancing levers.

"Shadow Proclamation," the Doctor replied shortly, his face grim.

"What, exactly, is that?" Silver asked warily.

"A universal police force," the Doctor answered. He fiddled a few buttons and slammed his fist into a bright blue knob. The Tardis stopped shuddering and stopped with a lurch, making Silver stumble back, tripping over the loose laces of her white high-tops. With a grunt, Silver was on the grating, her cheek against the cool metal.

"We're here," the Doctor said, leaping over Silver's fallen form and pushing open the Tardis doors. Silver looked up and narrowed her eyes in annoyance. Blowing her bangs out of her face, she stood up and followed the Doctor out the door.

"Watch it," the Doctor cautioned quickly, gripping Silver's shoulder and tugging her slim form beside him protectively. Silver's eyes widened and her jaw dropped, emanating a strange popping noise.

"Sko po tro no fro jo ko fo to do," the Judoon captain said, his small, beady eyes warily regarding the two visitors. The rest of the rhino-headed aliens raised their guns and pointed them directly at the duo. The Doctor and Silver quickly straightened and raised their hands in surrender.

"No bo ho sho ko ro to so," the Doctor responded confidently. Then, in one breath, he quickly recited, "Bokotosofopopopojo."

Silver slowly turned to the Doctor and stared at him with a confused expression. The Judoon, however, quickly lowered their arms.

"Mo ho," the Doctor said, letting his hands drop.

"Let him come through," a feminine voice said. The Judoon quickly parted, allowing a human-looking woman to walk through. Her blonde, curly hair was held back with black lace. Her eyes were crimson and she wore a black simple black dress. The only jewelry she wore was a black necklace around her neck.

"Who are you?" the woman asked, her eyebrows raised disdainfully. Even her gait held a certain prideful quality to it.

"I'm the Doctor, and this is Silver," the Doctor said.

"Where do you come from," the woman asked.

The Doctor shrugged nonchalantly. "Here and there."

"My readings tell me that you are Time Lord," the woman said lightly. She began pacing the room, her tread making almost no sound at all. "Impossible. You are imposters."

The woman swiftly turned around and frowned. "It's quite convenient of you two to show up on our doorstep. We usually have to catch the fugitives first."

"We mean no harm," the Doctor said patiently. He took an experimental step forward and the Judoon instantly raised their weapons.

"Give me one good reason why I should believe you," the woman said.

"The Earth has been stolen," the Doctor said, "We need help to find out what's happened."

The woman raised her eyebrows. The silence seemed to envelop the room for a few long seconds before the woman sighed and stepped away. She motioned for the Doctor and Silver to follow.

"Doctor," Silver whispered furtively, glancing behind her furtively. The Judoon stared back, their small eyes trained on her back. With a small gulp, Silver quickly whipped around and kept her eyes straight ahead.

"Yes?"

"There are rhinoceros aliens in the room."

"They're called the Judoon."

"Oh." Silver blinked a bit and nodded to the red-eyed lady in leading them. "Who's she?"

The Doctor turned to Silver. "The Shadow Architect. The Judoon are here to protect her."

"Right. Rhinoceros-headed bodyguards. Never thought of that before," Silver muttered a bit light-headedly.

"Quiet," the Doctor said quietly. He smiled pleasantly as the lady in black turned around.

"Right in here," the Shadow Architect said. With her hands clasped at her skirt, she glided past a doorway and into a room filled with technological devices that closely resembled computers.

"Earth is not the only one," the woman said gravely, "Many planets are going missing, and we have no idea what to do. Here's all of them." The woman gracefully ran her finger along the screen and a group of miniature planets rose from the monitor, shimmering with light.

"Twenty four of them," the woman recited, her eyes trained on the planets rotating slowly, "If you count Earth, that is." With another flick of her finger, a second object was added to the amount. A tiny Earth the size of Silver's hand began hovering in sync with the other planets.

"Twenty four of them," the Doctor said. He slipped on his glasses and studied the planets carefully. "And they have nothing in common at all."

"Precisely," the Shadow Architect said, looking over the Doctor's shoulder, "That's why we have no leads. There's nothing to explain their disappearance. They simply vanished. How can twenty four planets just disappear?"

"Perhaps a mega-transportation device?" the Doctor suggested, "They've invented those by now on Mupharia, right?"

The Shadow Architect shook her head. "If such an object had been transported, it would have shown up somewhere else on our radar. We've checked. There's nothing. They're gone."

"They must be somewhere," the Doctor said, squinting his eyes, "Planets don't go disappearing everyday."

"Um, excuse me?"

The Doctor and the Shadow Architect whirled around and raised their eyebrows. Silver glanced at them a bit tentatively and gulped. She gestured to the computers and tilted her head.

"I was just looking at these and-"

"What are you doing?" the Shadow Architect said angrily. She swiftly walked over to the young girl and stood between her and the technological device. "Do you know how much these cost?"

"I-I was just wondering what happened to this one." Silver reached around the stiff woman and sent her fingers across the screen. A planet rose from the monitor and began to peacefully turn.

"Oh that?" The woman shook her head stoutly. "Pyrovillia. It's a cold case. It disappeared over two thousand years ago.

"Really?" The Doctor swooped over to the two women and began to study the planet furiously. "We were just there yesterday. We went to go get ice cream."

The Shadow Architect shook her head angrily. "It's impossible. It's like Adipose 3 and the Lost Moon of Poosh. They don't exist."

"Wait a minute. Bring those two up, too." The Doctor trailed his hand over the monitor and two more miniature planets popped up, rotating together.

"Can you put them with those over there?" the Doctor asked, nodding toward the other computer.

"Of course," the Shadow Architect said, mildly offended. She pushed the Doctor away and tapped at the device. Instantly, three objects identical to the originals forced their way into the twenty four lost planets.

"Now try this." The Doctor rushed to the first computer and ran a hand through the images. The now twenty seven planets rearranged themselves and began turning together.

"Would you look at that," the Doctor muttered, his eyes trained on the planets turning in unison.

"What? What's wrong?" Silver asked.

"They fit together perfectly, like the pieces of an engine." The Doctor brought his face up to the circle of objects and smiled. "Oh, you are beautiful, aren't you?"

"I don't see anything wrong," Silver said, shrugging.

Without thinking, the Doctor stood up and twirled around. He grabbed Silver by her shoulders and shook her a bit.

"Tell me. Has there been anything strange happening on Earth?" the Doctor asked, "You know, people going missing, huge tidal waves, things like that?"

"I-I don't know," Silver said with a squeak, "I'm just from California. What do I know about current events?"

"It doesn't have to be anything big," the Doctor said, "It can be small things, but it has to be unusual. Anything?"

Silver thought for a second, her brow furrowed in concentration. Then, her face brightened and she grinned. "There are the bees. The bees keep disappearing."

"Oh for crying out loud," the Shadow Architect said, rolling her eyes, "That can't possibly be a clue."

"I read it in _National Geographic_," Silver said proudly, "They estimated the current number of bees in the world, and it's really low compared to the 1900's."

The Doctor stared at Silver for a second, his eyes blank. Then, in a spur of the moment, he reached out and kissed his companion on the forehead.

"Ew!" Silver cried, stepping back and pretending to gag.

"The bees!" the Doctor cried victoriously, "Oh, why didn't I think of that? It's the bees! Oh, Silver you are brilliant!"

"Thank you," Silver said perkily. Then, her face drooped and she tilted her head to the side. "Why, exactly, am I brilliant?

"The bees aren't disappearing!" the Doctor said, "They're going home. Oh, don't you two get it?" He glanced at the Shadow Architect and Silver's blank stares. "Oh, it's so obvious! Bees don't come from Earth. They're from Melissa Majoria! They knew this was coming, those smart little things, and flew home to safety. Of course, they had to use the Tandocca Scale to get there. We find the Tandocca Scale, we find the Earth! It's so simple! Oh, it is brilliant!"

"That's it?" Silver asked, raising an eyebrow, "We follow the… bees?"

"Yes! Follow the bees!" The Doctor said victoriously. He whooped and hugged Silver triumphantly.

"Now, wait a moment!" The Shadow Architect stood imposingly between the Doctor and Silver. "This is no laughing matter! The planets were taken with hostile intent! This calls for war, Doctor, and you will lead us across the universe to fight."

"That's not fair," Silver said angrily, "Who said we'd lead you?"

"You must," the Shadow Architect said, ignoring Silver and training her red eyes on the Doctor. After a few moments of stunned silence, the Doctor nodded.

"Right. Political matters come first. Of course. Let me just go get the Tardis ready." The Doctor grabbed a spluttering Silver's wrist and dragged her back to the blue box.

As soon as the two disappeared inside, the Shadow Architect turned to the Judoon. "War has been declared, ready yourselves!" However, the aliens did not move. Instead, they kept their eyes trained on something behind their leader.

"What?" The Shadow Architect turned around. Her eyes squinted and her mouth curled back into a snarl.

"Doctor!" she screamed, "You come back! You come back right now!"

However, her yells were useless, and the Tardis soon disappeared, leaving a platoon of confused Judoon and one very angry Shadow Architect.

o.O.o

Rose stood in the employees' bathroom at Torchwood, staring at her reflection. She carefully brought her hand up to her hair and let it twirl along her finger. Then, with a small sigh, her hand dropped to her side.

Two years had passed since she last saw the Doctor. Two years was a long time.

"Don't be stupid," Rose said to her reflection, "You don't have a reason to be nervous." However, the flittering butterflies in her belly begged to differ.

Suppose the Doctor had moved on? Suppose another girl, probably prettier and cleverer than she, had replaced her? Suppose it had been so long, that the Doctor had forgotten who she even was?

Rose frowned and looked down at her shoes. What would the Doctor say, now that she was coming? Would he be happy? Surprised? Shocked? She hadn't changed much, had she? She was still the same Rose.

"Um, Miss Tyler?"

Rose looked up. "Oh. Jessie. What's wrong?"

"Miss," Jessie said nervously, "Will says he's ready for you. We're all waiting."

"I'll be right there," Rose said. Her voice cracked and she looked down, her hands supporting her weight against the granite counter.

"M-Miss, are you alright?" Jessie asked hesitantly.

Rose giggled softly. "Oh, it's nothing. I'm just acting like a child, that's all. I have nothing to be worried about."

"You'll be fine. Will's made sure that the dimension cannon is safe. All his tests have come out perfect. You have nothing to fret about."

"Oh, I don't doubt Will," Rose said, smiling softly. Her face fell and she sighed.

"Miss, what's wrong?" Jessie asked, shutting the bathroom door behind her. She unsurely set a calming hand on Rose's arm. "Is there something not right?"

"Oh, Jessie," Rose said, bringing her hand to her face, "I'm a right fool, I am."

"Why? What's happened? Are you hurt?"

"No, it's nothing like that." Rose looked up at Jessie. "I-I keep thinking that perhaps the Doctor doesn't want me back."

Jessie's eyes widened. "Oh, Miss Tyler, if you really believe that, you really must be sick. From what I've heard, the Doctor could lose the right side of his brain and still remember you."

"Really?"

"Of course!" Jessie reached up and patted Rose's shoulder reassuringly. "Miss Tyler, if that man is everything you say he is, then the last thing he'd do is forget about the love of his life."

"You think I'm the love of his life?"

"Yes!" Jessie nodded enthusiastically. "You two complete each other!"

Rose chuckled and looked back at the mirror. "But, Jessie, what if he thinks I've changed too much?"

"Then he's the foolish one, Miss Tyler." Jessie stood back and crossed her arms resolutely. "Now, Miss, our team is in the laboratory right now waiting for you to come and save not only this universe, but all the others as well. Are you coming or not?"

Rose looked up at her reflection, and smiled softly.

"Yeah," she said, "I am."


	5. Chapter 5

"Alright, Rose, remember. If you swipe your finger here and wait a few seconds, you can find your exact location. If you press this button, you can send an automatic transmission back to us. Now remember, we have no idea if either of these will work, so you can't depend on them."

Will pointed at different parts of the large, black dimension cannon, instructing Rose on what to do. All around her, scientists in white lab coats straightened straps and tugged on adjusters, preparing her in any way possible for the mission. Rose had changed out of her work clothes and was now in a pair of jeans, a pink top, and a purple jacket.

"When you get in there, go find the Doctor," Will said, polishing the body of the dimension cannon with a rag, "Don't dawdle. We have no idea what's going on in their world, and for all we know the Earth could be gone. Wherever you end up, find him, and tell him what's going on."

Rose nodded bluntly, her heart hammering in her chest. After months of waiting, she had finally accomplished her goal. She'd succeeded, and now, she was going to save the universe, and all the other ones along with it.

And Rose was terrified.

It wasn't just the pressure of meeting the Doctor, now. Everything Will said was making her feel worse. If she did not complete her mission, she'd doom everyone nonexistence and certain death. This thought was not something that went well with Rose's stomach.

Rose stood in the crisp laboratory breathing as calmly as she could. She would be leaving in just a few minutes, and the whole team plus a few others had gathered around her. Her parents were not allowed in. Guests were not permitted in the laboratories. However, Mickey was there for support, and even Mr. Harrods had come.

"If you see a Dalek, just shoot." Will continued, not noticing Rose's discomfort. He spoke at the speed of lightning. "This cannon is also a gun. If you get into any trouble, just aim and pull back on the hammer."

Will looked up from his hands at Rose. "That's all I can say. We're not even positive it could work."

"Well, we've got to try," Rose said hoarsely.

"If only I had a few more days," Will said regretfully, standing up from his squat and fingering the straps of the dimension cannon, "I would've perfected it for sure. I should've added another layer of safety and defense for the transmission system. I could've added a perception filter to the hilt, or maybe a-"

"Will, you've done your best," Mr. Harrods interrupted, stepping forward, "You have just created the most powerful weapon in history. You have already accomplished so much. Miss Tyler can cope. Don't fret."

Will swallowed a bit, nodded, and quickly scampered away, patting Rose on the back reassuringly. The small crowd of people circled Rose, waiting silently.

"Miss Tyler," Mr. Harrods said, "Are you ready?"

Rose bit her bottom lip and fiddled with her fingers. Then, she looked up at Mickey, who stood to her left watching her cautiously with a worried expression. When their eyes met, he raised his hand. It wasn't noticeable, but it was enough. He was saying goodbye.

"I am," Rose said confidently, turning to Mr. Harrods. The vice president opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something, then quickly shut it. He shook Rose's hand firmly.

"God bless you," Mr. Harrods said. He stepped back and gave Rose a salute. She smiled back softly.

"Alright!" Will yelled loudly, "Everybody, away from Rose!"

The circle of people around Rose quickly scooted back, leaving a large amount of space between her and the employees of Torchwood.

"Rose!" Will said.

"Yeah?"

"You got your fingers on the right keys?"

Rose looked down at the dimension cannon in her hands. Its sleek, black body felt odd in her palms. It was so curious to be holding such a powerful invention. She strategically placed her fingers on a few hidden buttons on the cannon. Rose looked up and nodded to Will, who stood at a computer right behind the crowd.

"When we give the signal, press! You may feel a small humming and a little warmth."

"Okay!" Rose called back, her voice cracking. She turned her head and gave Mickey one last smile before facing forward and setting her expression grim.

"Charter! To the main docking lab! Let tubes A2 and B8 out into the gunning system," Will yelled. A scientist rushed to a table and began flicking switches. Blue and green liquid flowed from plastic tubes into a large machine.

"Wolfe! Hudson! Get to the standing computing systems and enter the codes! Feed the light-sound energizing codes in!" At Will's orders, two scientists rushed behind a large computer and began tapping at the keys at a rapid pace.

"Rose! Is it on?" Will yelled. Rose looked down at the cannon and felt a slight heat penetrate the metal and warm her skin. The large black gun began to vibrate slightly in her hands.

"Yeah!"

"Good! Get ready for the signal! Rinson and Ord! Get to your stations and enter the codes now! When you're done, turn on the Void protection shielding and wait for my orders!"

As the two scientists began feeding numbers and letters into a large computer system, the humming in the dimension cannon increased. Rose's heart rate shot up and she felt a bit faint

"Rose! Ready?"

Rose closed her eyes and breathed slowly. "Ready!"

"Go!"

At Will's command, Rose pressed her fingers into the buttons with so much force that two of her nails broke against the hard material. For a terrifying second, nothing seemed to happen. Then, all of a sudden, Rose felt herself pitch forward. It was as if something was tugging on her stomach and forcing her down.

Rose yelped as darkness engulfed her. She was not aware of anything except for the cannon in her hands. Her fingers groped at the prized possession and grabbed it for relief and comfort. The darkness became heavy and compressing. Rose felt her body squeezed and pulled and prodded so much until her skin tingled. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

Blinking a bit, Rose looked up. She was in a dark alley behind a large brick building. The sounds of yelling and screaming came from behind the structure. Rose looked up at the sky and gasped. There were still stars in the sky, but they were definitely different. All the constellations she'd spent months memorizing at Torchwood had vanished from the dark blue sky above.

Rose glanced down at her cannon and looked at a small screen hidden on the side. She tried to find her exact location, but it wasn't working.

"No location found?" Rose muttered, reading the words on the flashing screen, "How is that possible? It must have broken."

She looked back up at the dark sky and frowned. Something about the stars made her uneasy. She'd seen this formation before, but when?

Suddenly, Rose understood. She'd learned about this formation in her first training session at Torchwood. It was the Medusa Cascade, but with a few extra stars. Upon further investigation, Rose realized that these glowing pinpricks were planets. What was the Earth doing in the Medusa Cascade? It was eons away from the solar system.

The sound of smashing bottles echoed throughout the dank alley, and Rose carefully made her way out of the dark path . As she neared the main roads, this place became familiar. She'd walked down this street many times when she was younger on her way to school. The old chip shop was still down the street. Rose felt her heart lift a bit at the sight of the familiar signs. This was home.

However, when Rose finally emerged on the main road, the chaos and noise shocked her. Londoners ran back and forth throughout the street, screaming and causing disorder. There were people standing in the middle of the road, teenagers setting trashcans on fire, and even a few citizens climbing up the buildings. The sound of burglar alarms rang, but this went unnoticed as people continued to run around yelling.

"The end of the world, darling!"

Rose looked up to find an obviously drunk man approaching her, a bottle of empty liquor in his hand.

"End of the stinking world!" he said loudly, rocking back and forth. Rose regarded the drunk with a slightly apprehensive expression.

"Have one on me, mate," Rose said calmly before leaving the drunkard to his shenanigans.

The sound of breaking glass brought Rose to a halt. She turned to a nearby electronics store and saw a few young people grabbing laptops and computers. They stuffed them into their bags with such fervor that even Rose was a bit taken aback.

"Right!" Rose yelled at the burglars, "You two! You can put that stuff down or run for your lives!" Rose threateningly pulled the hammer on her dimension cannon back.

"D'you like my gun?" Rose asked. The two thugs looked at each other uncertainly before rushing away, tripping over their stolen items.

When the two boys were out of her sight, Rose sat down, staring at the monitor of one of the computers. She entered a few codes into the laptop and a screen appeared.

"Well, guess it's time to find help," Rose muttered to herself grimly. She was just about to tap a few codes into the laptop when a small notification appeared on the monitor. Rose clicked on it and a small black video feed popped up.

"What's this?" Rose muttered, drawing the mouse toward the controls. However, just as she was about to close the feed, a red line appeared across the black background.

"EXTERMINATE!"

Rose drew back, shaking with fear and shock. She felt a cold, clammy sweat break out over her forehead.

"What?"

"EXTERMINATE!"

Rose stared at the message in horror as it played on loop, the threats of the Daleks ringing in her ears.

o.O.o

"Doctor!" Silver shrieked shrilly. She grabbed the back of the captain's chair for anchorage as the Tardis rattled about. The Doctor, however, ignored his companion's yells and ran back and forth along the controls, pressing levers and pushing buttons.

"What are you doing?" Silver asked over the beeps and twangs of the Tardis's control system.

"Following the bees! Like Ron in _Harry Potter_!" the Doctor yelled back, almost tripping over a black wire.

"What?" Silver slammed into a metal bar and winced. _Alright_, she thought, _He's officially gone crazy_.

"The bees knew this was coming, and we're following their path. They'll lead us right to the Earth. Hold on tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride!"

"How could it be more bumpy?" Silver demanded angrily, "We're literally-"

Before Silver could finish her sentence, she was slammed backwards into the Tardis's coral fixings. Then, before she could regain her balance, she was pitched forward right into the captain's chair. The Tardis twisted and turned like a crazy rollercoaster. The Doctor held on tight to his control systems and grunted as a broken wire slapped him in the face. The Tardis definitely did not like where they were going.

"We're here!" the Doctor finally said, relieved. The Tardis stopped swinging about and began to drift silently, like a ship in the ocean.

"Where are we?" Silver asked, wincing as she touched a growing bruise on her arm.

The Doctor rushed to a monitor on the Tardis and jabbed at the screen. He carefully looked at the readings but shook his head impatiently.

"That's impossible," the Doctor muttered. He shook the monitor a bit and gave the side a good tap. The Tardis protested angrily with a loud hiss of steam, insisting that the readings were correct.

"Why in the world are we here?" the Doctor asked quietly.

"Why? What's wrong? Where are we?"

"The Medusa Cascade," the Doctor said grimly, "I came here when I was just a kid. Ninety years old."

Silver looked up at the Doctor questioningly. From the feed on the screen, the Medusa Cascade didn't seem that dangerous.

"It was the center of our Rift in time and space," the Doctor said.

"Where are the planets?" Silver asked.

"They're not there," the Doctor answered, his face expressionless and his brown eyes dead.

"So where are they?" Silver asked. The Doctor remained silent.

"Doctor," Silver said, a bit more forcefully, "Doctor, don't do this. Doctor, what now? What's going on? What do we do?"

The Doctor still did not speak, though his Adam's apple bobbed up and down nervously. His neck shone with perspiration and sweat.

"Doctor, I have family down there!" Silver said angrily, pushing at his chest, "I've got my mom and my boyfriend! There's Sommer and Chandra and Priscilla! They're all my friends, Doctor! You have to help them! Doctor, I'm going to college soon! I need it all back! Tell me, what are we going to do?"

The Doctor remained silent, and his eyes were unmoving. They never left the monitor on the Tardis.

"Doctor!" Silver said loudly, "What do we do? You always know what to do. You never give up! Doctor! Don't do this to me!"

The Doctor continued to stare at the screen. Silver gasped and looked at her feet.

"Everything's gone," she said, tears pricking the edges of her eyes. She brought her hands to her face and began to cry.

"I don't have a home anymore."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own the fantastical magical goody-ness that is Doctor Who because if I did, it wouldn't be very good. **

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><p>Rose numbly sat at the laptop, unable to feel any kind of emotion at all. The Dalek's threats continued coming from the laptop's speakers. They rang in Rose's ears, drummed in her brain, and rattled her heart. She silently listened to the magnetic voice of the Doctor's enemies, declaring their omnipotence and power. She hadn't arrived in time. She was too late. The Daleks were already here.<p>

_Do not fail_.

Rose straightened her back, looking around at the store. She could've sworn she'd heard Mr. Harrods's voice.

"I'm going crazy," Rose said quietly, chuckling to herself.

"Can anyone hear me?"

Instantly, Rose looked up from her huddled position. The Dalek's tyrannical orders had stopped, and they'd been replaced by a loud, obnoxious beeping. The laptop screen was now fuzzy with static, and Rose could see the faint outline of the woman among the black and white lines.

"I know that voice," Rose said slowly, tapping away at the laptop as quickly as she could.

"The Subwave Network is open. You should be able to hear my voice." Rose let her fingers fly over the keys at a rapid pace, desperate to try and find the source of the speaker.

"Is there anyone there? This message is of the upmost importance. We haven't much time. Can anyone hear me?"

The image had cleared a bit, and the mysterious person was definitely female. Rose had a feeling she knew who the lady was. It was on the tip of her tongue.

"Captain Jack Harkness, shame on you!" the woman chastised. Rose's heart instantly leaped at the familiar name.

"Now stand to attention, sir!" the woman ordered. The image had cleared now, and Rose felt a deep wrench in the pit her stomach.

"Harriet Jones. Former prime minister," the woman said proudly, holding up an identification card.

"Yeah. We know who you are," Rose muttered under her breath. She continued tapping away, trying to find where the wave was coming from and how it had found her.

"Sarah Jane Smith. 13 Bannerman Road. Are you there? Good."

"Sarah? Sarah Jane?" Rose looked up in alarm, her volume raising as Harriet Jones asked for the Doctor's former companion.

"Now let's see if we can talk to each other." Harriet Jones reached to her side and pressed a button. Four live video feeds immediately appeared on Rose's laptop screen. Harriet Jones was in one of them, and Jack was in another. Sarah Jane and a young teenage boy appeared in the third lot. The fourth square continued to receive static.

"Can you guys hear me?" Rose asked. Nobody seemed to notice her. "Does this thing have a webcam?" Rose wondered. She turned the laptop over in her hands but didn't find the glimpse of a single camera. Rose glanced around the electronics shop, but there were no webcams in sight.

"Fourth contact seems to have some trouble getting through. I'll just boost the signal."

Rose ran back to the laptop, urgently shouting, "Harriet! That's me! That's me!"

"Hello?" A stranger appeared in the fourth screen, smiling brightly. The African-American woman's hair was gelled back in a neat, tidy bun, and she wore black clothing. The girl fluttered her eyes and squinted at the monitor.

"Who's she?" Rose demanded. Obviously, everybody else knew who the strange woman was, because Jack grinned and chuckled victoriously at the arrival of the new person.

"Martha Jones!" Jack said happily, "Martha, where are you?"

"I guess Project Indigo was better than we thought. One second, I was in Manhattan, next second… Maybe Indigo tapped into my mind, because I ended up in the one place I wanted to be."

"You came home," a voice off-screen said, "At the end of the world, you came back to me."

The young woman smiled at the speaker before turning back to the camera. "But then all of a sudden, it's like the laptop turned itself on."

"That happened to me, too!" Rose said enthusiastically, hoping at least someone would hear her, "Same here!"

"It did," Harriet Jones said, ignoring Rose, "That was me. Harriet Jones. Former prime minister." The woman held up her identification card again.

"Yes, I know who you are," Martha said, smiling softly.

Rose pouted. "That's usually my line."

"I thought it was about time we all met, given the current crisis," the former prime minister explained, "Torchwood, this is Sarah Jane Smith."

"I've been following your work," Jack said curiously, "Nice job with the Slitheen."

"Yeah, well I've been staying away from you lot. Too many guns." Sarah Jane nodded her head to the young boy beside her, and Rose chuckled to herself.

"All the same, looking good, ma'am," Jack smoothly commented, smiling cheekily.

"Really?" Sarah Jane smiled. She seemed flattered at the comment and subconsciously brought her hands up to her hair. Rose giggled. After all this time, Jack still had that flirtatious charm of his.

"Not now, Captain," Harriet said tiredly, slightly rolling her eyes, "And Martha Jones, former companion to the Doctor."

Rose's nose wrinkled at the new information. "Oi, so was I!" she protested, even though nobody could hear her.

"But how did you find me?" Martha asked.

"This, ladies and gentlemen. This is the Subwave Network, a sentient piece of software programmed to seek out anyone and everyone who could help to contact the Doctor."

"Amazing," Rose gushed.

"But what if the Daleks can hear us?" Martha asked worriedly. As much as Rose disliked this new woman, she had to admit that her counterpart had a point. If the Daleks could hack into every speaker on Earth, they had to have enough technology to at least notice the feed.

"No," Harriet Jones said proudly, "That's the beauty of the Subwave! It's undetectable."

"A-And you invented it?" Sarah Jane asked disbelievingly.

"I developed it. It was created by the Mr. Copper foundation."

"Yeah, but what we need right now is a weapon," Jack pointed out, "Martha, there at UNIT, what did they give you? What was that key thing?"

Martha hesitantly held up a geometrical device similar to a computer chip. "The Osterhagen key."

"That key is not to be used, Dr. Jones," the former prime minister instantly ruled, "Not under any circumstances!"

"Right," Jack said unsurely, "But what _is_ an Osterhagen key?"

"Yeah, what?" Rose asked to herself.

"Forget about the key!" Harriet quickly said, "And that's an order!"

"Somebody's a bit grumpy today," Rose muttered, raising an eyebrow.

"All we need is the Doctor," Harriet Jones said. Rose's heartbeat rose, and she earnestly turned the laptop's volume up.

"Oh, excuse me, Harriet!" Sarah Jane piped up, "But… Well the thing is… You're looking for the Doctor. Didn't he depose you?"

Rose instantly nodded. "He did! On Christmas day!"

"He did," Harriet said, a hint of remorse in her voice, "But I have wondered about that for a long time and whether I was wrong, but I stand by my actions to this day because I knew that one day, the Earth would be in danger, and the Doctor would fail to appear."

Rose rolled her eyes at this comment, but she still couldn't help but agree with Harriet. Sometimes, things happened on their own accord, and even Doctor couldn't stop them.

"I told him so myself, and he didn't listen," Harriet said gravely.

"But I've been trying to find him," Martha said, "The Doctor's got my phone on the Tardis, but I can't get through."

Rose felt a deep pang of betrayal. She'd been there first. That was her phone.

"That's why we need the Subwave," Harriet explained, "To bring us all together. Combine forces. The Doctor's secret army."

Everybody, including Rose, straightened their backs at this. It was something powerful, something electrifying, to be dubbed the Doctor's soldiers.

"Wait a minute," Jack said, "We boost the signal. That's it! We transmit that telephone number through Torchwood itself using all the power of the Rift…"

"And we've got Mr. Smith!" the young boy by Sarah Jane's side piped up earnestly, "He can link up with every telephone exchange on the Earth! He could get the whole world to call the same number, all at the same time. Millions of phones calling out all at once!" the boy exclaimed in wonder.

"Brilliant," Jack said, grinning. Then, he paused and pointed a finger at the camera. "Who's the kid?"

"It's my son!" Sarah Jane said defensively, putting her arm around the boy protectively. Rose raised an eyebrow. A son? Who was the father?

"Excuse me, sorry." A man appeared in Jack's screen and pushed the Captain away. "Sorry. Hello. Ianto Jones. Um, if we start transmitting, then the Subwave Network is going to be come visible. I mean, to the Daleks."

Rose's heart dropped. This Ianto Jones had a point. If the Subwave Network was unveiled, the Daleks could find them and kill each person on the screen before they could even get their phones out.

"Yes," Harriet Jones said seriously, "And they'll trace it back to me. But my life doesn't matter. Not if it saves the Earth."

Rose gripped the edges of the laptop and stared at Harriet, who'd just volunteered her life for the good of the world. The respect Rose had had fro Harriet a few years ago had now returned. She felt a deep sense of gratitude and thanks toward the former prime minister, a woman she'd had mixed feelings about before.

On the laptop screen, Captain Jack Harkness stood back and saluted Miss Jones, his face emotionless. "Mom."

"Thank you, Captain, but there are people out there dying on the streets. Now, enough of words. Let's begin."

Everybody on screen instantly began to take action. People ran back and forth, yelling orders and reports as they entered codes and turned on devices.

"Calling the Doctor," a robotic voice reported from Sarah Jane's portion of the screen.

"Oh my," Rose said. She scooted away from the laptop and watched the screen hopefully, praying that the plan would work.

"And…" Jack said, stretching out the word, "Sending!"

A funny sound emitted from the Torchwood section of the monitor, and a curious beeping rose up from Cardiff, Wales.

"It's working," Rose said quietly. She quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She hadn't used it in a while because of her quiet lifestyle in the parallel universe, but now would be a good time to start. Rose quickly punched in the Doctor's number, a code she'd memorized long ago.

"Find me, Doctor," Rose whispered, closing her eyes, "Find me."

o.O.o

The Doctor stood in the Tardis, leaning against the metal bars. He'd failed. He was giving up. For the second time in his life, he was dooming another civilization to the Daleks as he watched from his safe little time machine.

Suddenly, the loud sound of a ringing phone shattered the grim silence. It took a second for both his companion and him to realize, but, at the exact same time, Silver and the Doctor leapt for the small cell phone on the Tardis console.

"Phone! The phone!" the Doctor yelled, grabbing at the small cellular device. "Martha? Martha are you there?"

"Who's Martha," Silver asked, raising an eyebrow.

"One of my former companions," the Doctor said quickly, "She lasted a bit longer than the… others."

Silver leaned into the phone and listened, but all she heard was an obnoxious beeping similar to the alarm clock she had at home.

"A signal," the Doctor said, pulling away.

"Can we follow it?"

"Oh, just watch me," the Doctor said ferociously. He pulled out a stethoscope and slipped its small rubber nubs into his ears. Then, he slammed the phone down on the console and quickly pressed the stethoscope upon the front of the phone, as if he were searching for a patient's heartbeat.

For a split second, everything went quiet in the Tardis. Silver even stopped breathing for a second for fear of losing this precious little sliver of hope. The Doctor's eyes narrowed in concentration as he struggled to find the signal.

"Got it!" he suddenly cried, ripping the stethoscope off his head, "Locking on!" With a grunt, the Doctor pulled down a lever, and the Tardis began lurching about, red lights flashing everywhere.

"Silver, we're taking you home!"


	7. Chapter 7

"Harriet, a source has locked on to your location."

The second Rose heard those words, she stumbled to the laptop and gripped the screen fervently. Although Harriet was ready to accept her fate, Rose certainly wasn't.

"They found you," the black- haired Torchwood employee said, her eyes wide. Rose shook the laptop with desperation and worry.

"No," she begged, "No, no, no."

"I know," Harriet piped up, "I'm using the Network to mask your transmission. Keep going!"

"EXTERMINATE."

Rose squealed and looked around, but that metallic, robotic voice hadn't come from her side. Turning back to the laptop, Rose watched in horror as Harriet turned to her left and tapped a few buttons.

"Captain, I'm transferring the Subwave Network to Torchwood," the former prime minister said calmly, "You're in charge now. And tell the Doctor for me. He chose his companions well."

Rose smiled faintly, and for the first time for several years, tears dotted the corners of her eyes.

"It's been an honor," Harriet said gravely. The sound of splintering wood and breaking glass came from the woman's stream, and Harriet Jones stood up. She turned around to face her executioners with pride and courage, keeping her head held high and her spine straight.

Three Daleks came into view, their lasers pointed up menacingly as they glided over the carpet floor. Harriet confidently strode up to her executioners. "Harriet Jones. Former Prime Minister," she said surely, raising her I.D. card.

"Yes," the Daleks replied, their grating, sharp voices making Rose's ears hurt, "We know who you are."

"Oh you know nothing of any human," Harriet said with a slight hitch in her voice, "And that will be your downfall."

The middle Dalek twitched its eyestalk curiously, as if questioning this strange human's audacity and boldness. Then, with a loud and threatening, "EXTERMINATE", Harriet's portion of the screen went black.

"No!" Rose screamed, gripping the laptop with such ferocity that her knuckles turned white. She slapped the device with hope, but Harriet never came back up on the laptop.

"Oh no." Rose hunched over the laptop and stared at the monitor blankly. However, just as she was about to close the computer in despair and anguish, Harriet's monitor exploded in life, and a very familiar face showed up on screen.

"Doctor? Doctor!" Rose's heart seemed to burst out of her chest as she hungrily grabbed the laptop, bringing her face up to the Doctor's as close as she possibly could. He looked just as he did a few years ago, with his cheeky smile, his smart suit, and his disheveled hair. Rose gently ran her finger over the Doctor's grinning face, as if caressing his cheek.

"Doctor," Rose whispered.

"Where the hell have you been?" Jack roared, not nearly as gentle as Rose's reaction had been, "Doctor, it's the Daleks!"

"Oh, he's a bit handsome. I thought he'd be older," the female Torchwood employee said, sounding pleasantly surprised. At this, Rose raised an eyebrow.

"I thought younger," the other male Torchwood worker said, squinting his eyes.

"It's the Daleks!" Sarah Jane repeated, "They're taking people to their spaceships!"

Martha and Sarah Jane began speaking at the same time, struggling to explain the current situation of the Earth. However, Rose didn't listen. Instead, she kept her eyes on the Doctor, ravenously taking in his image.

"Sarah Jane!" The Doctor grinned. "Who's that boy?"

The Doctor leaned closer to the screen and eyed the monitor closely. Rose's heart jumped. His eyes were so mesmerizing.

"That must be Torchwood," the Time Lord muttered.

"Who's he talking to?" Rose muttered. She suddenly noticed the young, black-haired girl to the Doctor's right with her head tilted in confusion. Who was she? Was she the Doctor's new companion? Had she been replaced already? Rose's heart deflated a bit.

"Oh you're brilliant," the Doctor gushed, "Look at you all, you clever people!"

"Oh!" the young girl said in an American accent. The girl instantly brightened. "Who's he?" The Doctor's companion pointed at the screen, her bright eyes sparkling.

"Captain Jack," the Doctor said. The young girl opened her mouth, but the Doctor quickly replied, "No."

The young girl frowned. "Doctor, I have a boyfriend."

Rose sighed in relief. This American girl had a boyfriend. She was not that kind of a companion after all.

"Doctor," Rose said quietly, "It's me. I came back."

"It's like an outer space Facebook," the stranger said in wonder.

"Yes," the Doctor said quietly, "Everyone except Rose."

At this, both the Doctor's current companion and Miss Tyler lifted their heads, staring at the Doctor imploringly.

"Rose?" the stranger asked perkily, "You mean that girl you-"

"Yes, Silver. Shh."

Rose stared at the monitor, her eyes darting back and forth. So the Doctor hadn't forgotten her. She was still a part of his life. He still talked of her, so much that even this stranger knew her name.

Suddenly, the Doctor's side of the screen became static.

"No! No!" Rose cried. She had worked so hard to see the Doctor again, and now that she'd found him once, he couldn't just disappear. No, she deserved more than just a glimpse.

"Your voice is different, yet its elegance is unchanged," a rusty voice said from the laptop. Rose's eyes widened. It sounded like a Dalek, yet it didn't at the same time. There was something more raw, more tangible, in this voice.

"No," Sarah Jane whispered shakily, "But it can't."

"Welcome to my new empire, Doctor," the voice said. The screen cleared, and all the members of the Subwave Network vanished from the monitor, replaced by the single face of a creature so strange and terrifying that Rose's body shook.

It was a strange creature, obviously alien, with steel bolts and chains coming from its wrinkled, prune-like head. Its eyes were long gone, nothing but shriveled eyelids permanently closed upon the openings. However, coming from the creature's forehead was a strange, blue light that was so similar to a Dalek's eyestalk that Rose couldn't help but feel afraid.

"It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the resurrection and triumph of Davros," the creature said, revealing an unsightly row of blackened teeth, "Lord and creator of the Dalek race."

"What?" Rose asked. She stared at the screen and noticed that the creature did not stand on feet or claws or legs. It seemed to recline in the bottom half of a Dalek controlled by a joystick and flashing buttons. What kind of monster was it?

"Have you nothing to say?" Davros questioned.

"You should have died," the Doctor said shakily, "I saw your commanding ship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. Nobody could save you, even me."

"But it took one stronger than you, Dalek Khan himself."

"I flew into the wild and fire!" a sickening voice said off-screen. It sounded insane and deranged, like a hermit seeing light for the first time. "I danced and died a thousand times."

"Emergency temporal shift," Davros said simply, "Took him back into the Time War himself."

"That's impossible." The Doctor's voice came from the laptop, yet no matter what Rose did, she couldn't seem to see him. "The entire war is time-locked!"

Davros chuckled, his voice crackling and breaking like sand rubbing against stone. "And yet he succeeded. Oh, it cost him his mind, but imagine a single, simple Dalek succeeded where emperors and Time Lords have failed. A testament, don't you think? To my remarkable creations."

"And you made a new race of Daleks," the Doctor said.

"I gave myself to them, quite literally. Each one grown from a cell in my body." Davros reached up to his chest and began unbuttoning his uniform. The alien pulled the fabric back, revealing a trampled mess of ripped flesh and rotting bone so wrong that Rose had to turn away from the screen. It was grotesque.

"New Daleks," Davros said proudly, "True Daleks. I have my children, Doctor. What do you have?"

"After all this time," the Doctor's voice said, his desperation and worry slipping in and out of his words, "Everything we saw, everything we lost, I have only one thing to say to you." The Doctor paused, as if trying to recollect his thoughts. Then, his face brightened, and with a victorious, "Bye!", the Subwave Network shut down.

Rose tilted her head at the sudden change of events as Davros's face suddenly vanished from the monitor. The laptop twitched a bit, and smoke began to seep from its insides. Rose quickly stood up, brushed herself off, and ran out the door. The Doctor was coming to save the Earth, and she was going to be there to help him, no matter what the costs.

o.O.o

"Doctor?" Silver screeched as the Tardis began twisting and turning for the umpteenth time of the day. Waves of nausea slammed into her, but Silver ignored the queasiness of her stomach and gripped the console for balance.

"Silver, remember how you said you'd always wanted to go to London?" The Doctor asked.

"Yeah?"

"Well, welcome to the heart of the United Kingdom!" the Doctor yelled, pulling levers and pushing buttons. With a big crash, the Tardis landed on the Earth heavily. "Out the door. Go!"

The Doctor and Silver stumbled out the Tardis doors drunkenly, desperate to figure out what was going on.

"This doesn't look like London," Silver said unsurely. She'd seen pictures of the large, English city. There were supposed to be masses of people and streets clogged with traffic. It should've sounded like a normal, urban city. Instead, the lane was deserted, and everything was eerie and quiet.

"Sarah Jane said they were taking the people," the Doctor said, staring at the abandoned cars and fallen bikes.

"Well, what do we do?" Silver asked worriedly

"Think, think, think," the Doctor urged, eyes narrowed. He began pacing left and right, tapping his fingers against his head. "What do we do? What do we do?"

"Um, Doctor?" Silver said, suddenly turning pale. She knew that face. She'd seen that face before.

"He said temporal shift," the Doctor said, "But what did he mean? Davros, Dalek Khan, what?"

"Doctor?" Silver said, even more urgently.

"Time War," the Doctor mumbled feverishly, keeping his eyes on the asphalt in concentration, "Nightmare Child. New Daleks. True Daleks. Daleks, oh no, Daleks. What do we do?"

"Doctor!" Silver shrieked, her voice slightly echoing in the empty city.

"What?" The Doctor's head quickly shot up, facing Silver questioningly.

"You know that Rose you talked about?" Silver asked, looking a bit shocked.

"Yes, what about her?" the Doctor asked, clearly annoyed now.

"Did she have long, blonde hair?" Silver asked, "Brown eyes?"

The Doctor blinked at Silver slowly and uncomprehendingly.

"Well, I've always thought they were more hazel, like a mixture of brown and green," the Doctor said quickly, "But that can't possibly be very important. After all, she – Wait a moment. How did you know what Rose Tyler looked like?"

"B-because of that!" Silver said. She shakily raised her hand and pointed down the street. The Doctor turned around, and his mouths dropped open. His arms shook, his legs jiggled, and is two hearts nearly stopped all together.

Rose was there, only a block or so behind him, smiling happily, her head tilted playfully and her long wisps of hair flying behind her. The Doctor rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his head. It was a mirage, a hallucination, an image of his memories. When he let his hands fall, however, Rose Tyler still stood in the exact same spot, unblinking.

It couldn't be. Rose was gone. She disappeared from his life long ago. She was a memory. That wasn't her. That was not _his_ Rose.

"Doctor?" Rose said hesitantly. The Doctor took a small, uncertain step forward, but suddenly his whole body became as rigid as a rock. His eyes darkened into whirling pools of deep brown. With a small flick of his head, Doctor twirled around and marched away, leaving Rose Tyler and her cracking heart on the abandoned London street.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello my lovelies! Thank you so much for all the awesome feedback I've gotten, especially from the last chapter. Sorry it's been going so slowly, but I wanted to bring Rose's perspective into the beginning, so yeah. Don't worry, the rest of this fic will be really different from the episode itself.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. The idea is preposterous. **

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><p>The Doctor exhaled through his teeth as he strode back to the Tardis. He was still aware of Rose standing behind him and could even feel waves of abandonment and betrayal hitting him in the back. He ignored them and kept his eyes trained forward. Even Silver was silent, but her eyes danced with anger and frustration.<p>

"EXTERMI-!"

The Doctor quickly whipped around at the sound of the Dalek, but before the vile creature could finish its words, it was killed, and all that was left was a pile of smoking remains. Behind the carnage, Rose stood stoutly with her large black gun cocked up in shooting position.

No. The Doctor blinked, but it was true. Rose had killed the Dalek. She had committed murder, without even blinking an eye. What had happened to his sweet, beautiful Rose? She was not his pink and yellow human anymore. That Rose felt compassion for a lone Dalek when nobody else did. That Rose cried when she killed a man brainwashed by the devil. That Rose was the one he wanted. This Rose was different.

"Rose?"

"Jack!"

"Oh my God!"

The Doctor was dimly aware that Rose had moved. She was embracing a figure in the background, laughing in excitement and relief. However, the Doctor could hardly care about the newcomer. He was too busy staring, gaping, at the broken bits of metal and flesh on the ground. Rose had done that. She was the one who put that there.

"Oh Jack. Something's wrong with him!"

"What?"

"I don't know. It's just..."

"Doctor, are you alright?"

The Doctor looked down and found someone's hand placed on his upper arm comfortingly. His eyes traveled up to find Captain Jack Harkness smiling at him cheekily, even though his eyes showed small signs of worry.

"I'm fine," the Doctor growled, pulling away from Jack's touch.

"He was acting all funny," Silver contributed, stepping up next to Rose.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Jack asked again.

"I'm fine!" the Doctor barked, quickly sidestepping his companions and stuffing his hands into his pockets. Suddenly realizing what a complete fool he was being, the Doctor looked down and blushed. "I'm fine," he repeated numbly, "I just need some time to think a bit."

"This is hardly the right time…" Jack began, but the Doctor quickly interrupted him.

"Just a few seconds," the Doctor promised, "I'm going into the Tardis to… think"

The Doctor pushed past his bewildered companions and stepped into the Tardis, slamming the door behind him. Once he was in the safety of his time machine, the Doctor began to panic.

"Rose," the Doctor said out loud, testing the name on his tongue. He pushed his hair back nervously. "Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose." He tried it with every inflection, accent, and language he knew, but the name still sounded the same. _Rose_.

He didn't know what to do. In his dreams, the Doctor had always remembered his separation from Rose. He always remembered the pain, the helplessness, and the intense sadness from the situation, and no matter what happened, he could never sidestep the memories.

However, it had never occurred to him that they would meet again. It was preposterous. There was no way possible. Even if she did manage to open the walls of her universe, she should've died, being tortured in the Void, and although that thought did not go particularly well with the Doctor, it was logical, and he was always comfortable when things were logical. It made sense. Rose's sudden arrival, however did not make sense, but against all odds, she had obviously found a way back.

The Doctor felt horrible for not being excited. Here was Rose, his harmless little human. He'd missed her so much, but she wasn't so harmless any more. She had just killed a Dalek in cold blood, for God's sake! The Doctor remembered back when Rose was compassionate, caring, when she believed that everything in the universe had some good, no matter what. The Rose outside was not like that. This was not his Rose anymore. His Rose was gone, replaced by this new, changed Rose, and he didn't like it one bit.

The Doctor sank to the ground and let his back lean against the Tardis doors.

"Oh, what am I going to do?" he groaned, letting his face fall into his hands.

o.O.o

Rose stared at the Tardis, openmouthed. All of her dreads, horrors, and nightmares were coming true. The Doctor had abandoned her. With one sweep of his long brown coat, he was gone, and she was alone again.

"He's like that a lot," Silver managed. She waved her hand a bit, as if unsure what to do, before awkwardly setting it on Rose's shoulder in an attempt to comfort the older girl.

"What happened to him?" Rose whispered.

Silver shrugged. "To be honest, I have absolutely no idea."

"I'm going to go see if he's alright," Jack said, straightening, "You girls wait out here, in case it… affects things."

Jack nodded to the duo and quickly stepped into the Tardis. Rose still wouldn't keep her eyes off of the blue box. She did not speak, and it almost seemed as if she did not breathe either. Silver gulped. Babysitting a drunken time lord, she had experience in, but when it came to heartbroken girls, she was unfortunately in the dark.

"What went wrong?" Rose said sadly, "Is he like this all the time?"

"Only some days, but he's always been a bit moody and stuff. Sometimes, he's on top of the world, jumping around and yelling about bananas or something, but other days, he's all grumpy and drinking and all that. There are times I feel more like a babysitter than a companion."

"So you're his companion?" Rose asked, "For how long?"

"A couple of months," Silver replied, "But I was going to be leaving soon. College, y'know? I know time doesn't really matter on the Tardis, but I'm aging, and I don't think the university's going to be very pleased if the eighteen year-old they think they'll meet turns out to be thirty or something."

Silver grinned wryly at her joke, but Rose remained stony.

"So I've only been gone for a few months?"

"No! No!" Silver said quickly, shaking her head. "You've been gone for two years now. There were a whole lot before me, but he doesn't like to talk about it. He just needs someone to take care of him. Not a girlfriend, necessarily, but just a friend. Just someone to talk to."

Rose raised an eyebrow and finally lifted her eyes off of the Tardis and onto Silver. "Oh, so you two aren't…?"

Silver stared at Rose for a few seconds, before the meaning question dawned on her. The young American girl's eyes widened and she guffawed loudly. Rose stared at Silver incredulously as her new friend laughed heartily at her question. Rose didn't think it was that funny.

"You mean the Doctor? No!" Silver cried, giggling, "Of course not! Ugh! Gross! That'd be like having a crush on your uncle! He's way too old! And besides, I have a boyfriend back in California."

"Oh, right," Rose said, feeling relieved. Although Silver had said she had a boyfriend on the Subwave Network, Rose still wanted to see if the young girl was telling the truth. Now that she was sure of Silver and the Doctor's relationship, Rose couldn't help but feel a small, special attachment to this young girl.

"You know, the Doctor said he loved you," Silver suddenly said, making Rose choke a bit.

"Did he?" Rose said, trying to sound as pleasant has possible.

Silver nodded. "He did. I asked him. He thinks about you all the time. He once started moaning for you when he was drunk. Trust me, he really, really likes you."

Rose remained grim. "Doesn't look like it."

"He'll come around," Silver said confidently, "I'm sure of it."

o.O.o

"What was up with that?"

The Doctor looked up from his huddled position to find Captain Jack Harkness, one of his ex-companions, glaring at him with his arms crossed.

"What did I do wrong?" the Doctor asked.

"Everything," Jack answered quickly, "You're acting strange, Doctor, and if I were you, I'd feel plenty lucky right now. Rose is out there waiting for you. She must've done so much to get here, and you're going to blow it? No, not on my watch you're not. Up! Get up!"

The Doctor didn't even lift his finger. "She's changed," he merely replied.

"Of course she's changed," Jack said, rolling his eyes, "What, you think she stayed the same after what happened at Canary Wharf?"

The Doctor's eyes became dark. "Look," he growled, rising to his full height testily, "What happened at Canary Wharf was not my fault."

"I know," Jack quickly assured, "I know. I'm just saying that it was natural for her to change. After everything she's been through, everything that's happened, something has to have been different. It would've been weird if she didn't change."

"I know," the Doctor groaned, "But I never thought we'd meet afterwards. It was supposed to be impossible! And it's not just a small change. It's enormous. Look at her! She's a bloody different person! I-I can't handle it! I just can't."

The Doctor sat back down on the metal floor and buried his head in his hands miserably. Jack fiddled with the sleeves of his trench coat for a second before kneeling down before the Doctor.

"Look," he said, ignoring the fact that the Doctor still had his face masked by his hands, "I know it's difficult for you to get, but that's not the point. The point is that the planet is in danger right now, and we need to fix it. People are dying, Doctor, and you're supposed to be out there helping, not sitting in your box crying about a girl. We'll figure it out after Davros is gone, okay? Up. We have a planet to rescue."

Jack held out his hands, and the Doctor, after a moment of hesitation, grasped it firmly and pulled himself off of the floor.

"Alright," the Doctor said, breathing breathlessly, "Phew! Alright! All better. Planet to save. Right." The Doctor shook himself, like a wet dog shaking its fur. Then, he reacquired his cheeky gusto and grinned widely.

"Right," he said, smiling, "Ready to go?"

"Of course. I'll go get them," Jack said, nodding to the Tardis door. He jumped off of the metal platform and opened the Tardis's doors. "Get a move on!" he yelled, "We don't have all day!"

"We're coming, we're coming!" Rose called back, and the Doctor's hearts involuntarily jumped at the sound of his ex-companion. However, almost instantly, he forced his stomach to stop fluttering and to focus on the mission ahead of them.

"Well, hello," Jack said, placing his hand on the Tardis wall and leaning against his arm smarmily. Silver raised her eyebrows at the man and frowned disapprovingly.

"Boyfriend," she sang, and Jack quickly straightened from his pose.

"Right," he said, "Got it." However, this didn't stop him from winking at Silver audaciously, causing her to giggle a bit.

"Stop flirting," Rose ordered, stepping into the Tardis. She would've reprimanded Jack more, but she didn't. She was in the Tardis again, a place that had been her home for two years. It still glowed warmly, its console still beeped and whistled, and even its comforting hum was still there, welcoming her back.

"Hello," Rose whispered, letting her fingers trail over the console, "Miss me?"

"Alright!" the Doctor said loudly, clapping his hands together. Rose immediately jerked up to look at the Doctor, but he kept his distance from her and refused to meet her eyes, making Rose's heart drop a bit lower.

"Let's go!" the Doctor announced, "Allons-y!" He grandly pulled down a lever to begin the Tardis, and by the way the light shone in his eyes, one would've though confetti was going to come down or something. But no. Nothing happened. Silver coughed into her hand to hid her laughter, and Jack smirked.

"What?" The Doctor stared at the lever quizzically. He pulled it back down again. It bounced back up again, but the Tardis refused to move. It was locked in place.

"What happened?" the Doctor wondered. He flicked a few switches and pushed a few buttons, but nothing shifted, moved, or even budged.

Then, everything went dark. The lights turned off, and even the Tardis's monitors went blank. All the beeps and whistles and hums stopped, and the Doctor and his companions looked up in surprise and shock.

Immediately, the Doctor jumped into action.

"They've got us," he cried, sending everybody into a panic, especially Silver, who'd never dealt with Daleks before.

"They stopped the Tardis?" she shrieked, "How?"

"Power's gone," the Doctor said, "Its like it's in a chrono-loop."

As the Doctor swung a monitor towards him, the Tardis violently shifted diagonally without warning, sending all of the time machine's passengers to the ground.

"Doctor?" Rose said, her voice becoming shrill and squeaky.

"They're taking us to their ship," the Doctor yelled, "Hold on tight!"


	9. Chapter 9

"There's a massive Dalek ship at the center of the planets," Captain Jack explained as the Tardis twirled around in space, dancing past colorful planets and stars, "They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination."

"This happened in my universe," Rose said gravely, "The stars were going out, and everything was dark. We looked up at the sky, and they were just dying. We built this dimension cannon to try and come back. To find the Doctor. So he could… help."

Rose looked up at the Doctor hopefully, praying that this information would spark something, anything. However, the Time Lord remained silent and brooding. Rose sighed and looked back down at her interlocked fingers.

"It shouldn't have worked," Rose continued, "But it did, not just in this world, but in ever universe out there. I can jump between worlds. The whole of reality, even the Void, was easy to get through, like slicing a knife through pudding. Something is destroying everything."

Everybody remained silent after Rose's explanation. Something was eating its way through the universes, one by one, and nobody knew what.

Suddenly, a small monitor on the Tardis's console began beeping. Everybody leapt at the screen quickly, gripping its sides and trying to read the glowing panel.

"The Crucible," the Doctor said, "All aboard."

At the Doctor's words, the Tardis began shooting up at a rapid pace, like an elevator gone crazy. Rose and Silver grabbed at the railing as Captain Jack pitched forward, but the Doctor kept his feet planted on the metal grating as his eyes danced with adrenaline and fire.

After a few moments, the Tardis stopped rocking and planted itself firmly on an unknown surface. The four passengers looked at the door, anticipating the worst.

"The Tardis is secured!" The unmistakable voice of a Dalek made everybody jump a bit.

"Doctor!" came the deeper, more pronounced voice of another Dalek. The Doctor's eyes widened. "You will step forth or die!"

"I have to go out," the Doctor said gravely, staring at the door, "If I don't, they'll get in."

"But you said that nothing could get through those doors," Silver protested.

"You've got shields, defenses, right?" Jack asked.

"The Daleks are powerful," the Doctor said grimly, "They last time we fought them, they were just scavengers. Hybrids gone mad. This is a fully-fledged army. Right now, that wooden door is just… wood."

All of the Doctor's companions stared at him worriedly. They wanted so much to try and make him feel better, but it was no use. Everybody, even Silver, knew the consequences if they did not heed the Dalek's orders.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, hanging his head, "There's nothing else we can do."

"Surrender, Doctor," the Dalek ordered, "Face your Dalek masters!"

The four glanced at the door nervously, and suddenly, Captain Jack began to giggle. The other three stared at him cautiously as the American man broke into chortles.

"Daleks," he said, chuckling a bit, "Awooga!"

"It's been good, hasn't it?" the Doctor said, smiling at his team. His eyes wanted to fall on Rose, to tell her that she was wonderful. Extraordinary. She was better than them all, he wanted to tell her. However, the Doctor quickly stopped himself and let his eyes glaze over the team.

"You were brilliant," the Doctor said, making eye contact with Silver. She smiled weakly and blinked a bit.

"And you were brilliant." The Doctor looked at Jack, who laughed and grinned, letting his white teeth shine.

"And you…" the Doctor looked at Rose with a pained expression, and for a second, he wanted to grab her and tell her she was beyond brilliant. She was superb. She was magnificent. She was amazing. But the Doctor stopped himself and let the end of the sentence drift off. He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair nervously.

"Blimey," he muttered, and the Doctor slowly turned to the door. First, the Doctor stepped out, then Rose, and finally Jack. They never noticed where Silver had gone.

"Daleks reign supreme," the metallic aliens outside chanted, "All hail the Daleks!"

"Oh. My. God," Rose breathed, gazing up at the ceiling.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Captain Jack replied, keeping his eyes trained upward. The Doctor's mouth just hung open, his jaw slack with awe and fear.

Above them were hundreds, thousands, of Daleks. They were in immaculate condition and traveled with such pristine grace that even the Doctor twitched at the unnatural perfection of the aliens. Every single Dalek was polished and shined, and none of them were defenseless. All of the Daleks had their weapons pointed straight ahead threateningly, and they all chanted in sync.

"All hail the Daleks!" they recited, "Daleks reign supreme!"

"Doctor, behold the might of the true Dalek race."

The Doctor, Rose, and Captain Jack slowly turned their heads to find a majestic red Dalek sitting on a slightly raised pedestal. It looked as if it were lounging on a throne.

"The Supreme Dalek," Captain Jack whispered into Rose's ear.

"I know who he is," she whispered back angrily. Jack raised an eyebrow and looked back up at the grand and stately alien that stood before them.

The Doctor eyed the Supreme Dalek down furiously, his face beaded with perspiration. "What are you doing? How did you get my ship?"

"The Tardis is a weapon," the Supreme Dalek proclaimed, "and it will be taken to the laboratories to be taken apart."

The Doctor's eyes widened. The Tardis was his home. It was his time machine. The Daleks couldn't take it. They just couldn't.

"Take the Tardis to the laboratories," the Supreme Dalek ordered. A few Daleks glided up to the time machine. With a quick twitch of their lasers, the Tardis flew up a few feet and landed itself on a moving platform. The Daleks used their lasers and began pushing the Tardis away from its owner.

"What are you doing?" the Doctor yelled. He ran up to the Tardis, but a few Daleks glided in front of the raging Time Lord and raised their weapons.

"Give it back!" The Doctor rushed back up to the Supreme Dalek, his voice raw and his eyes angrily narrowed into thin slits of fire. "What are you doing to do with it?"

"The Tardis consists of Time Lord mechanics. It will be stripped down and used for Dalek weaponry."

"You've taken the defenses down," the Doctor said quietly. Then, his breath quickened and his volume went up. "It will be torn apart!"

"Total Tardis strip-down is required!" the Supreme Dalek said. Rose gazed at the Doctor, whose angry glare fixed on the Dalek was so dark and livid that every living creature within the vicinity took a small step back. Even the Supreme Dalek seemed to quiver its eyestalk. Rose felt an unexpected urge to comfort the Doctor, and she suddenly found herself walking up his side and gripping his hand.

This was the first contact they'd made in two years. Such a simple interlocking of fingers could mean so much. The Doctor did not flinch or pull away at Rose's touch. Whether it was because he suddenly forgave her, or because he was so into the moment that he didn't notice, Rose did not care. It only mattered to her that the Doctor was there, and she was with him, comforting him.

"Now tell me, Doctor," the Supreme Dalek said, "What do you feel? Sorrow? Despair?"

"Yeah," the Doctor admitted breathlessly.

"Well if emotions are so important, surely, we have enhanced you."

"Yeah?" Captain Jack yelled boldly, "Feel this!" Jack suddenly raised his gun and shot a bullet at the Supreme Dalek. The small bit of metal bounced off of the defended Dalek uselessly, but Rose and the Doctor were still taken aback at the Captain's ferocity and nerve. They stared at their companion as if he'd suddenly grown five heads.

"EXTERMINATE!"

Captain Jack cried out as the green light flashed. He crashed to the floor limply, the harmless pistol skittering away. Rose shrieked and ran to his side, letting go of the Doctor's hand. For the first time, the Doctor realized he'd been gripping Rose's fingers, and he felt a strange emptiness at his side as Rose bent down to examine Jack.

"Oh my God. No," Rose said, desperately grabbing at Jack's trench coat.

"Rose, he's fine."

"No. He's not."

"He is. Trust me."

"Escort them to the boat," the Supreme Dalek ordered. A few Daleks glided up to the Doctor and Rose and prodded them away from Captain Jack, who lay on the floor like a broken rag doll. Rose sniffled and cried at her friend's sudden death. Captain Jack had been her friend, and Rose never wanted anybody to die during her mission. Not like this, anyway.

However, she did not notice the Doctor glance behind them as they were steered away from the Supreme Dalek. She did not notice the Doctor's slight, secretive nod to Captain Jack's limp form, nor did she perceive the small wink Jack Harkness gave the Doctor in return.

o.O.o

Silver gripped the edge of the console as the Tardis was lifted and placed on the moving platform. Her heart pounded in her ears, and her hands quivered shakily.

She didn't mean to stay in the time machine. In fact, the last thing Silver wanted to do at a time like this was to be left alone in the Tardis. Only a few moments ago, she had hesitated, but she didn't know it'd end up like this. She thought the Tardis was safe, that it would protect her. She thought wrong.

She'd heard the conversation between the Doctor and the Supreme Dalek, and although she was thankful for the fact she hadn't been discovered, the Daleks had been given orders to strip the Tardis down, and she was going to be discovered sooner or later.

"What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" Silver desperately whispered. She tiptoed around the inside of the Tardis as quietly as she could, but every footstep felt like a herd of elephants trampling through the time machine. Silver could hear the whirring of the Daleks right outside the Tardis door, and she had a feeling they'd hear her if she was any louder.

"Think, think, think," Silver urged to herself, sounding suspiciously like the Doctor, "What do I have? I've got me. Yeah, of course. I've got the Tardis. Rose was talking to the Tardis when she came in, like it could hear her. Can it hear me? Is it an it? A she? Tardis? Tardis?"

Silver looked up hopefully, but the Tardis continued to hum calmly.

"What am I going to do?" Silver muttered despairingly. She gripped the sides of her head and leaned against the orange wall.

Suddenly, Silver straightened. She heard singing. The young girl quickly twisted around and pressed her ear to the coral fixings of the Tardis. The Tardis was singing, well it was definitely humming a melody, and although there were no words, the hum was like a slow, rocking lullaby.

"Tardis? You there? Please be there," Silver begged. She pressed her hands against the Tardis walls nervously.

"Help me," Silver desperately urged, "Please!"

Slowly, the inner walls of the Tardis began to glow. At first, it was a soft light that blazed through the walls, but in a matter of seconds, the panels began to pulse, like the soft beating of a heart. With a soft _whoosh_, the walls split open, and the Tardis's song became a crescendo.

Silver gasped and stumbled back. The inside of the Tardis's interior walls was nothingness, a pulsating light that burnt Silver's eyes and made her squint. The light didn't hurt her, though. It was more like a caress, a soft touch of the skin. Slowly, Silver stepped up to the illumination. She reached her hand out to try and touch the light, but it suddenly turned off, and everything went dark. The walls went shut and the light was extinguished. Even the Tardis's song had stopped.

Then, as if by magic, a soft sprinkle of lights slipped through the crack in the walls and appeared in front of Silver. They danced in front of her eyes softly, tickling Silver's face and making her wrinkle her nose. She tentatively reached out to touch the group of shimmering dots, but they shied away from her hand and quickly danced away.

"No, don't be afraid!" Silver said. She got on her knees and crawled to the retreating glowing particles. For a second, the shimmering pricks seemed to want to run away, but after a small swirl of confusion, the glowing mass slowly floated up to Silver's face, warming her face.

"H-Hello," Silver stammered. One pinprick of light left the group and neared Silver's face. It quickly tapped Silver's nose and backed away. Silver gasped. She suddenly felt warm. So warm, in fact, that it felt like she was on fire.

Then, as if on its own accord, the shimmering mass of lights slammed into Silver forcefully, eliciting a loud scream that reverberated off of the walls of the dead Tardis.

o.O.o

The scream was loud enough to penetrate the Tardis walls. The Daleks heard and quickly twirled around in alarm. They pointed their guns up at the Tardis, but nothing happened. The scream had stopped, leaving an eerie silence. In fact, even the constant humming of the Doctor's time machine was gone.

"Examine problem," a Dalek croaked.

"Unknown," another answered.

The group of Daleks cautiously neared the blue police box, never keeping their laser beams off of the machine.

Then, with a loud and bold bang, the Tardis doors flew open, and a young girl stepped out brashly. Her hips were cocked, and her arms swung around her freely. She smiled widely and let her fingers glide over her skin. The girl's eyes brightened and she began to touch the doorframe of the Tardis gingerly. As she let her fingers fall to the sides of her legs, the girl began to giggle softly, much to the confusion of the Daleks.

"What?" one of the Daleks cried out.

"Are they always like this, the humans?" the girl asked, looking down at her hands. The veins under her skin were golden and emitted a soft glow. "Are they always so big on the inside?"

"Who are you? Name yourself!" the Daleks demanded.

The girl grinned and looked up. Her irises were golden, and the Daleks' eyestalks quivered in confusion.

"You may all call me… Sexy."


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello everybody! Thank you guys so much for reading Oh, Doctor. I just realized that some of you guys might not have realized what exactly happened to Silver just now, so if you didn't go watch The Doctor's wife, episode 4 of season 6. That might make more sense.**

**Also, I'm proud to say that in a couple of weeks, I'll be releasing another FanFic. It will be pretty similar to my first one, the Planet of Colors, but it will have more content in each chapter, which means I won't be able to update as frequently as Oh, Doctor. I don't know when it'll come out, but I can assure you it'll be out before June, mostly because I'm super busy and won't have a lot of time to write in general.**

**Thank you guys so much for reading, and remember, reviews are always appreciated and loved and kissed and cuddled.**

**Disclaimer: All credits go to BBC. If I owned Doctor Who, it would probably be… well, let's say it won't be good.**

* * *

><p>Pushed and prodded by enemy Daleks, Rose and the Doctor were lead into a large, spacious room dimly lit. Rose, still hiccupping from the sudden death of Captain Jack Harkness, gripped the Doctor's hand ferociously. Curiously, the Doctor didn't seem to mind. Perhaps it was because they were alone now. Because they had nobody else but each other, but both captives held each other's hands desperately, despite the tension that hung around them like thick fog.<p>

"Activate the holding cells," said Davros, who'd followed the prisoners into the room.

The Daleks pushed Rose and the Doctor away from each other, forcing the two to release their grips. They never made eye contact, but they both felt it. That eerie sense of fear and solitude had come back. The sense that they were alone again.

Rose and the Doctor were placed into two different sections of the room. As soon as they stopped fidgeting, a bright light appeared above them. The Doctor looked up quickly and squinted at the spotlight.

"Excellent," Davros purred in contentment, "Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained." The creature whirred his way up to the Doctor and regarded his nemesis silently.

"Still scared then?" The Doctor reached out his hand and felt the air around him, but as soon as his palm touched darkness, a glowing blue wall pulsated, creating waves of electricity and energy around him. He was trapped.

"It is time we talk, Doctor, after so many long years," Davros said, but the Doctor quickly shook his head and interrupted him.

"No, no, no, no, no! We're not doing the nostalgia talk. I want to know what's happening right here, right now, 'cause the supreme Daleks said 'vault,' yeah? This is a dungeon. A cellar. A prison."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Davros, who now looked like he wanted to throw the Doctor into a roaring blaze.

"You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you?" The Doctor shifted his feet confidently and tilted his head. "They've got you locked down here in the basement like what? A servant? Slave? Court jester?"

"We have… an arrangement."

"No, no, no, no, no! Ha! No!" The Doctor laughed loudly. "We've got a word! You're the Dalek's pet!" he said victoriously.

"So very full of fire, is he not?" Davros quickly turned away from the Doctor before the man could tease him anymore. "And to think, she crossed entire universes, striding parallel to parallel to find you again."

Davros whirred up to Rose, who stood in her spotlight with as much authority and boldness as she could, even though she was shaking. She was obviously afraid and uncomfortable, and the Doctor could tell even from a distance.

"Leave her alone!" he blurted out.

"She is mine to do as I please," Davros quickly replied, eyeing Rose up and down in a way the Doctor did not like at all.

"Then why am I still alive?" Rose asked shakily.

"You must be here. It was foretold. Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Kaan."

Davros looked down at his panel of shimmering lights and pressed a button. Another spotlight turned on and a horrid, disgusting creature stood in the illumination.

It was a Dalek, not protected in its robotic metal casing, but exposed and naked like a newborn animal. Its automaton body had been broken down into a sort of chair, but it was held down with iron chains, like a dog. The Dalek lounged on its throne weakly, covered in its own slime and flesh. Its single eye pulsated grotesquely, and it raised its tentacles sickeningly.

"So cold and dark," the weak Dalek said in a thin, slightly insane sounding, voice, "The fire. The intense flames."

"What is that thing?" Rose whispered.

"You've met before," the Doctor said, "The last of the cult of Skarro. It flew into the Time War and protected."

"Kaan did more than that," Davros interjected, "He saw time. It's infinite complexity and majesty raging through his mind, and he saw you. Both of you."

"Yes. I have foreseen in the wild. The wing. The Doctor will be here as witness to the end of everything," Dalek Kaan sang, "The Doctor and his precious children. Time!" Dalek Kaan began laughing manically, waving its tentacles to and fro. "And one of them will die!" Kaan said gleefully.

"Who?" the Doctor asked angrily, "What are you trying to do?"

"Oh that's it!" Davros said, revealing his blackened teeth, "The end! The fire! The rage of a Time Lord! For certain you see. There it is. Why so shy? Show your companion. Show her your true self. Dalek Kaan has promised me that, too."

"I have seen that the Time Lord's, the Doctor's soul will revealed!" Dalek Kaan piped up.

"What does that mean?" The Doctor glared at Kaan angrily, which continued to wave its tentacles carelessly.

"People discover it together. Our final journey. Because the ending approaches. The testing begins." Davros slowly turned to look away.

"The testing of what?" the Doctor asked.

Davros turned back to the Doctor.

"The Reality Bomb," Davros said, "The Apotheosis." He pressed another button on his dashboard and a monitor appeared above Rose and the Doctor's heads. It was a live feed of a large, factory-like room with Daleks standing above and next to a small group of civilians.

"Activate alignment field!" a Davros announced.

"That's how you use the planets," the Doctor realized, "Used to flatten the energy into a single stream. No!" The Doctor turned to Davros with large eyes. "Davros! Davros! You can't! You can't! No!"

Rose and the Doctor watched in horror as the innocent humans looked up at a bright light worriedly, their hands still raised in submission. Slowly, the citizens let their arms go slack as they slowly dematerialized, turning into small glowing patches of light that quickly flew back up to the ceiling."

"Test completed!" a Dalek reported.

"Doctor, what happened?" Rose asked.

"Electrical energy is a powerful thing," Davros said, "Every atom in existence is found by an electrical field. The Reality Bomb cancels it out. Structures fall apart. That test was first on the prisoners, alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter."

The Doctor turned to Davros angrily, his eyes flashing and his breath escaping his mouth in ragged waves. This was not just murder. This was mass slaughter.

"The stars were going out," Rose said quietly, suddenly understanding why everything was gone. They were literally vanishing without a trace left, disappearing forever.

"Twenty seven planets," the Doctor said, "They become one vast transmitter, blasting out wavelengths…"

"Across the entire universe," Davros finished, clearly pleased at the Doctor's anger and wrath at his plan, "Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People, planets, and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelengths will continue, breaking through the Rift and the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation! This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!"

The Doctor glared at Davros, hatred and revulsion reflected in his eyes. He hated Davros. He despised him. He wanted to throw the vile creature into the Void and walk away, listening to the horrid alien's screams of pain, never ceasing. He wanted to take Davros and force him into the jaws of the Nightmare Child and never look back. He wanted to do everything to Davros. He hated him.

Suddenly, without warning, the live feed of the Reality Bomb testing was gone, replaced by a new familiar face.

"This is Martha Jones representing the Unified Intelligence Task Force on behalf of the human race."

The Doctor looked up quickly to find Martha Jones, one of his ex-companions, looking down at her audience stonily as the Daleks twitched their eyestalks warily.

"Repeat, can you hear me!" Martha asked desperately as the screen began to fizzle away.

"Put her through!" the Doctor ordered.

"It begins," Davros said, "As Dalek Kaan foretold."

"The children of time will gather!" Kaan sing-songed, "And one of them die!" The crazy Dalek began to giggle hysterically.

"Stop it saying that!" the Doctor yelled. He was sick of Kaan's voice, it's horrid high pitch that made his ears hurt. "Put me through!"

"Doctor!" Martha said happily. The Doctor sighed in relief. They'd obeyed him. "I'm sorry." Martha's face quickly turned upset, and the Doctor's heart dropped. Now what?

"I had to," Martha said.

"Oh, but the Doctor is powerless." Davros came into view and eyed Martha cautiously. "What is your business? State your intent."

"I've got the Osterhaagen key," Martha held up a large computer chip relatively the size of her fist, "Leave this planet and its people alone, or I'll use it."

"The Osterhaagen? W-What's the Osterhaagen key?" the Doctor asked, squinting at the screen.

Martha's expression looked grim and sad as she slowly told of the Osterhaagen key's purpose. "There's a chain of twenty five nuclear warheads placed in strategic points beneath the Earth's crust," Martha explained, "If I use the key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart."

"What?" the Doctor cried out. He was shocked. How could Martha think to do such a thing. Were situations so dire that they had to turn to mass suicide to save themselves?

"Who invented that?" the Doctor screeched, but he quickly raised an eyebrow and muttered, "Well, someone called Osterhaagen, I suppose. Martha, are you insane?"

However, Martha did not answer the Doctor's question. Instead, she continued holding up the computer chip with great importance, never letting her eyes off of the monitor. "The Osterhaagen key is to be used if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope, this becomes the final option."

"But it's never an option!"

"Don't argue with me, Doctor!" Martha said angrily, but she was already hesitating. Everybody could tell. Even Martha Jones was not sure this was the best solution to the problem. However, the small emotion of doubt passed over Martha quickly and she rapidly resolved her resolute attitude.

"It's more than that!" Martha said, "Now I reckon the Daleks need these twenty seven planets for something, but what if it becomes twenty six?" Martha held up the Osterhaagen key threateningly. "What happens then, Daleks? Would you risk it?"

"Oh, she's good," Rose said admirably.

"Who's that?" Martha asked.

"My name's Rose. Rose Tyler."

"Oh my God." Martha slowly put down the Osterhaagen key and stared at Rose in disbelief. "He found you," she said breathlessly.

The Doctor glanced at Rose, but quickly forced himself to look away. No. He hadn't _found_ Rose. Not the real Rose, anyway. This was a different Rose. He was still looking for the other one. He had to remember that. This Rose was not the same.

"Captain Jack Harkness calling all Dalek boys and girls! Are you receiving me? Don't send in your goods, or I'll send this thing off!"

"He's still alive!" Rose gasped, pointing up at another monitor that had joined Martha's. It was Captain Jack, holding up a thin gold necklace with a small, jeweled crystal at the bottom.

"Oh my God," Rose said, pointing at the images, "That's my mum!" Indeed, Jackie Tyler was there, along with Sarah Jane Smith and Mickey. The three people stood behind Jack protectively, like grim bodyguards ready for a fight.

"Mickey, Captain, what are you doing?" the Doctor asked.

"I have the Warp Star wired into the main frame," Jack said as the Doctor's eyes grew large in comprehension, "I break the shell, the entire Crucible goes up."

"You can't! Where did you get a Warp Star!" the Doctor cried disbelievingly.

"From me!" Sarah Jane admitted, stepping forward, "But we had no choice! We saw what happened to the prisoners."

"Impossible," Davros muttered angrily. The Doctor had almost forgotten he was there. "That face. After all these years."

"Davros." Sarah Jane's voice shook with recognition as she stared closely at the monitor. There was no denying it. The creator of the Daleks was back.

"It's been quite a while," she said, "Sarah Jane Smith! Remember?"

"Oh." Davros nodded slowly. "This is meant to be. The circle of time is closing. You were there on Skarro at the very beginning of my creation!"

"And I've learned how to fight since then. You let the Doctor go or this Warp Star gets opened!"

"I'll do it," Jack said, slowly letting his hand fold over the chain and creep closer to the small crystal at the bottom, "Don't think I wouldn't."

"Now that's what I call a ransom," Rose joked, grinning at the screen. She glanced at the Doctor, smiling, but her face fell as she saw the grim face of the Doctor. He suddenly looked elderly, like a man who was hundreds of years old. Technically, he was, but it never showed. To Rose, the Doctor had always been a young bloke, never aging, but now, all those years of fatigue and sadness were piling up, and she'd never seen him look so worn down and shaken.

"Doctor?" Rose asked quietly.

"And the prophecy unfolds," Davros said grandly.

"The Doctor's soul is revealed." Kaan giggled like a psychopath and waved its tentacles around giddily, "See him! See the heart of him! Ha! Ha!"

Rose stared at the Doctor, his eyes steadily staring at the ground. He looked as if he were aging before her eyes, years of life finally catching up to him. His breath was ragged, his arms were shaking, and even his hair seemed to deflate a bit. Rose loved that hair. She wanted to reach out and caress it, to run her fingers through the strands and down to his back. She wanted to hold the Doctor and tell him what good he'd done, how much of a future he had. Rose wanted to tell the Doctor that he was not what Kaan or Davros or any of the others said he was. He was not evil. He did not need to show her his true soul, because she already knew it. She already knew that the Doctor was the most compassionate, humble, and generous man in the universe, and nobody, not even the Daleks, could change her view on him. If only he knew.

"The man who abhors violence. Never carrying a gun," Davros teased, "But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons. All your children of time, transformed into weapons of murder. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."

"I was trying to help," the Doctor said.

"Already I have seen the sacrifices today, for their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman, who fell opening the Subwave Network," Davros said, his black teeth making small appearances between his cracked lips.

"Who was that?"

"Harriet Jones," Rose quickly explained, "She gave her life to get you here."

The Doctor stared at Rose. Harriet Jones was dead. It couldn't be. She was Harriet Jones, former prime minister. She couldn't just… die.

The Doctor turned back to Davros and stared at his enemy.

"How many more?" Davros taunted, "Just think. How many more have died in your name? The Doctor, the man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself."

The Doctor quivered and shook at Davros's words. He had always known that people died for him, in his wake, but he always tried to avoid the subject. He remembered all of them, all dead for the safety of the Doctor and the rest of the universe, but what good was that? What was the point, if such good people died, yet the ruthless kept living? Finally, it hit him, and the Doctor understood what Davros was trying to say. He was a killer, a murderer, and in the end, the Doctor was just as bad as Davros.

"Enough!" the Supreme Dalek said, "Engage defense zero five!"

"It's the Crucible, or the other!" Martha said, holding up the Osterhaagen key again.

However, before she could do anything with the computer chip, a Dalek pressed its plunger into a contraption and announced, "Transmat engaged!" Martha disappeared from the screen with a shriek, the Osterhaagen key dropping from her hand. Captain Jack, Sarah Jane Smith, Mickey, and Jackie also vanished. For a second, Rose thought that the Reality Bomb had been used, that her dear friends were gone.

Much to Rose's relief, her friends appeared right in the room, but before anybody could do any damage, Davros was pointing his blackened finger at them and yelling, "On your knees! Don't move! Surrender"

"Do as he says!" the Doctor begged. The new arrivals stopped short and slowly knelt down. Daleks surrounded the group of people as Davros smiled at his new prisoners maliciously.

"Mum, I told you not to," Rose muttered through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, well I couldn't just leave you," Jackie replied, her hands going up to her head in surrender.

"The final prophecy is in place. The Doctor and his children all gathered as witnesses," Davros said, "Supreme Dalek, the time has come. Now, detonate the Reality Bomb!"

"Activate Planetary Alignment Field!" the Supreme Dalek ordered.

"You can't, Davros! Just listen to me! Just stopped!" the Doctor cried as Davros looked upon his master plan unfolding before his very eyes. His fingers shook and his body quivered, but he continued to watch his invention rise before his eyes. Davros screamed in victory, laughing at his success as his audience looked on in terror.

"Nothing can stop the detonation!" Davros cried, "Nothing and no one!" Davros laughed, giving Rose a good view of his rotten molars. She closed her eyes and braced herself. This was it. She was going to die. She might as well die seeing something good. Yellow flowers, her new brother, Mickey, the Tardis, the Doctor…

"Hello everybody!"

Every head in the Crucible instantly swiveled around.

"What in the world?" Captain Jack cried, squinting at the new arrival.

"That's impossible," Davros whispered, his victory short lived.

"Silver, what are you doing here?" the Doctor asked incredulously. He hadn't even noticed she was gone, but there she stood, one hand on her hip and the other languidly swinging next to her thigh. Silver grinned cheekily and laughed at everyone's confusion. What was going on?

"Hello boys," Silver said, grinning and sweeping her hair out of her face, "So. What'd I miss?"


	11. Chapter 11

"Where have you been?" The Doctor boomed, staring at Silver with a bewildered expression, who returned the gape with a confused tilt of her head.

"I've been to many places," she said. Everybody in the room continued to gawk at Silver with amusement.

"What do you mean? And stop that!" the Doctor demanded.

"Stop what?"

"Stop speaking with a British accent! Where'd your American one go?"

Indeed, Silver's usual American accent was gone, replaced by a British inflection. Silver reached up to her throat and jabbed at her esophagus.

"I always translate things into British accents," she said innocently.

"No, you don't!" the Doctor cried, "The Tardis does that! You don't!"

"That's the point, Doctor." Silver walked up to the Doctor, and as she did so, her pupils flashed golden. "I'm the… the what-cha-ma-call-it."

"You're the Tardis," the Doctor said doubtfully, "My Tardis."

"My Doctor." Silver grinned and waved her fingers tentatively.

"Doctor, what's going on?" Captain Jack asked, staring at Silver questioningly.

"Has she gone mad?" Rose hesitantly poked a finger at Silver, but the invisible field before her prevented her index from going any further.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Silver bounded up to the console in the center of the room and began jabbing at buttons and switches.

"Ta-daa!" With a flourish of her hands, the dreadful countdown of the Reality Bomb stopped. Looking up from the console, Silver giggled at everybody's wide-eyed faces, "If your eyes get any bigger, they're going to pop out."

"B-but the Reality Bomb could not be stopped!" Davros stammered, "What did you do?"

"Closed all Z-Neutrino relay loops using an internalized synchronous back-feed reversal loop!" Silver recited proudly. She flicked a switch and swiveled around to face her shocked audience. "That was easy."

"You will suffer for this. Stop her!" Davros cried, pointing a finger at the new arrival. Multiple Daleks rushed up to Silver, their lasers pointed at her body threateningly. The Doctor and his friends watched in horror as the enemies converged on thair friend.

"EXTERMINATE!" screeched a Dalek, and a thick green laser shot through the air and toward its destination.

"No!" yelled the Doctor, but he feared he was too late. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, hoping Silver wouldn't scream.

"Um, Doctor, you can open your eyes."

The Doctor slowly opened his eyes to Rose's advice and braced himself for Silver's broken body.

"What the…"

His sentence cutting short, the Doctor and his fellow captives went slack-jawed. Silver was still alive, but she hadn't dodged or avoided the Dalek's green laser. Instead, she'd stopped it with the palm of her hand. The Dalek's green beam could go no further. Silver's hand had stopped a Dalek laser, and she didn't seem to be in any pain. In fact, she was giggling.

"I'm going mad," Rose breathed.

"Sorry, but I forgot to warn you," Silver sing-songed, "You see, Tardises have many strong defenses, and you know what happens when all those defenses are squished and pressed into an itty bitty tiny little human?"

Silver gazed at everybody's blank expressions and chuckled.

"Those defenses are so tightly packed, that they're like a bomb waiting to go off," Silver explained, "And when those defenses are activated, you're in big, big trouble."

As if on cue, Silver's body began to shine. Golden light seeped from her joints and soon, the illumination had reached all corners of the room. Daleks began to disintegrate on the spot, their metal turning into dust and their screams of pain echoing throughout the room.

The imprisoning lights above all the prisoners disappeared, and with a cry of relief, Rose leapt from her previous spot shielded her eyes. The others followed suit, but there was no need. The light never hurt Silver's friends. Instead of searing pain, they felt a soft tickling sensation. For some reason, Davros, the Supreme Dalek, and Dalek Caan were spared, too.

Finally, with a sigh of relief, Silver's light slowly seeped back into her body.

"Ah, that feels much better," Silver said, fluffing her hair and wiping off her clothing. She gazed about the room and smiled, "Well? What do you think?"

"What did you just do?" the Doctor asked, disorientated.

"I destroyed all the Daleks," Silver said a-matter-of-factly, "C'mon then! We've got twenty-seven planets to send home, and they're not going to find their way back themselves! Activate magnetron!"

With a victorious smile at Davros, Silver slipped back to the console and began typing random codes in a rapid pace. The Doctor's companions stared at their leader, who, with a shrug, joined Silver at the controls and began tapping away, too.

"Stop it at once!" Davros ordered, but Mickey quickly grabbed a large gun in the corner of the room, obviously confiscated from another human, and pointed it at Davros menacingly.

"Just stay where you are, Mister," Mickey growled, aiming the gun at Davros's head.

"Back home, Adipose Three!" the Doctor sang.

"Shallacatop! Pyrovillia! The Lost Moon of Poosh! Clom! Topping!" Silver chorused, flipping switches and tapping keys so fast that even the Doctor could not keep up.

As the Doctor and Silver worked together to clean the lost planets up, Davros angrily turned around to face Dalek Kaan.

"But you promised me, Dalek Kaan," Davros raged, "Why did you not foresee this?"

"This would have always happened!" Dalek Kaan squeaked, waving its tentacles excitedly, "I only helped!"

"You betrayed the Daleks," Davros croaked disbelievingly. Rose and Sarah Jane glanced at each other, grinning at Davros's surprise and shock.

"I saw the Daleks! What we have done throughout space and time. I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed 'No More'!"

"Heads up," Jack warned. The Supreme Dalek appeared at the doorway, his red shielding now speckled with grime and dust.

"Davros, you have betrayed us," the Supreme Dalek said.

"It was Dalek Kaan!" Davros claimed, pointing his finger at the insane, crazed Dalek that giggled and screeched with laughter.

"The Vault will be purged!" the Supreme Dalek cried, "You will all be exterminated!" The Supreme Dalek raised his laser and pointed it at a column. Jackie and Rose shrieked as the leapt out of the way quickly. The Supreme Dalek aimed and fired his weapon, and the green beam crumbled the large pedestal, sending it into ruins.

"Feel this!" Jack grabbed Mickey's gun and pointed it at the Supreme Dalek.

"Hey!" Mickey whined, but with a loud blast, Jack destroyed the alien, only its bottom half still standing in the wreckage.

"We've lost the magnetron!" the Doctor cried as a large chunk of the central console flew off, "And there's only one planet left! Oh. Guess which one?" The Doctor chuckled. "How do we get it back?"

"We can use me. I can pull it back," Silver volunteered. All the screaming and yelling went silent as all eyes stared at Silver. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I don't mean by myself. Just because I'm the Tardis doesn't mean the original can't work. I just need to be in the shell. Come on! Grab me!"

Without thinking, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Sarah Jane, Jack, and Martha lunged for Silver's arms, who, after some struggling, managed to calm the five desperate humans down so that they each linked arms, creating a chain of people.

"The prophecy must be complete!" Dalek Kaan cried out as the Doctor linked arms with Rose.

"Don't listen to him," Davros quickly said.

"I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Doctor," Dalek Kaan said, paying no heed to Davros's orders.

The Doctor glanced at his companions, and with a small shrug, he rushed back to the crumbling console and flipped a switch. "Maximizing Dalikenian power feeds. Blasting them back!"

"What've you done?" cried Jack, rushing forward only to be pulled back by Martha and Sarah Jane.

"Fulfilling the prophecy," the Doctor said, shrugging. He rushed back and linked arms with Rose again. "You can go now, if you don't mind!" he yelled to Silver, who rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out.

"Impatient much?" she screamed back as objects exploded and items combusted. Silver began to glow, and her light began to surround the escapees.

"Davros!" The Doctor reached his hand out for his arch-nemesis. Rose stared at the Doctor and raised an eyebrow, but he merely returned her glance and said, "I want to help him."

And suddenly, Rose knew why the Doctor was trying to help Davros. He wanted to prove that he wasn't what the Daleks had thought he was. He wasn't a murderer or a destroyer. He wanted to prove that he was kind, and that all that happened in the past was not his fault. He'd just been trying to help.

"Come with me!" the Doctor cried, trying to grab Davros, "I promise I can save you!"

"Never forget, Doctor," Davros shouted, pointing his finger at his enemy, "You did this! I name you, forever! You are the Destroyer of Worlds!"

"One will still die," Dalek Kaan reminded mournfully. The Doctor stared at Kaan morosely, and the Dalek blinked and nodded its head slowly. _Kaan is not crazy_, the Doctor thought_, he was helping. He was fulfilling the prophecy all along. He's not mad. He is just as wise as I am_.

Then, with a small intake of breath, Silver let her light fully engulf her companions, and Davros and Dalek Kaan disappeared from view.

o.O.o

"Oomph!"

Rose grunted as she pitched forward. She stumbled and was instantly pulled back by the Doctor and Mickey. They were back in London, sweet, sweet London, where there were no Daleks to be seen and the wrinkled elderly did not have a blue glowing eyeball on their foreheads.

"Mum!" Rose grabbed her mother, who embraced her fiercely.

"We're back!" Mickey cried. He grinned at Captain Jack, who smiled and pulled Mickey in an awkward, bone-crushing hug.

"Oh, the Tardis!" the Doctor cried. Unlike the others, who held each other's loved ones and laughed, the Doctor ran for his blue box and gripped the edges so hard that his knuckles turned white. It was a funny sight to see, a relatively older man holding a blue police box like it was his wife.

"Everybody in! Everybody in!" Silver yelled, pushing the Doctor out of the way and opening the doors.

At Silver's orders, everybody piled into the Tardis, tripping over each other's feet and rushing to get into the time machine.

"I-It's dead!" the Doctor said despairingly, staring at the darkened walls and eerie hallways. The only sources of energy providing light were the generators, and they were becoming weaker and weaker every minute.

"I'm not dead," Silver said, rolling her eyes, "I still work, I just don't… think. Well, I do, in this body that is, but my shell doesn't. I'm in this body, well actually, I'm in both places at once, just not… um… consciously…"

Silver's words drifted off and she stared at everybody with large eyes.

"Is this weird for everybody else, too, or is it just me?" Captain Jack asked.

"I'm with you," Mickey agreed.

"Yup," Rose commented, looking Silver up and down.

"We'll deal with you later," the Doctor said, pointing a finger at Silver, who in turn, stuck her tongue out and crossed her arms, "Right now, we need to figure out how to get the Earth back home. Can you…?"

The Doctor gestured at Silver unsurely. The young girl nodded and said, "You want me to get you guys home? Of course."

Silver skipped up to the console of the Tardis and, with inhuman strength, ripped away a sizable piece of the control system. The Doctor winced and whined a bit, but with one murderous look from Silver, he clammed up and watched the young girl pull away a large mess of wires and cables. Then, like she was going to wash her hands, Silver plunged her hands into the opening and tensed her muscles.

Like magic, the Tardis was instantly flooded with light. The small knobs and buttons on the console began to whirr and twirl again, and everybody seemed to relax a bit. Silver, however, did not look good. Her skin was pale, and a cold sweat broke out across her brow. Her hands shook and shivered as she adjusted to her new stance and readied the Tardis for flight.

"Alright," Silver said, obviously in pain and fatigue, "I can only keep this supported for around ten minutes. So hurry up, okay?"

"But the Earth is stuck in the wrong part of space!" Sarah Jane cried.

"I'm on it!" The Doctor leapt from his position and began tapping at a keyboard. The monitor above him flashed to life, and Captain Jack smiled proudly at the two curious faces on the screen.

"Torchwood Hub, this is the Doctor! Are you receiving me?"

"Loud and clear!" A dark-haired, large-eyed woman stepped up and eyed the screen questioningly. "Is Jack there?"

The Doctor glanced at Jack and grinned. "Can't get rid of him. Jack, what's her name?"

"Gwen Cooper."

"Tell me, Gwen Cooper, are you from an old Cardiff family?"

"Yes. All the way back to the eighteen hundreds," Gwen replied.

The Doctor stared at Rose, and for a few seconds, she didn't understand. Then, the realization dawned on her and her mouth dropped open.

"Hmm. Thought so," the Doctor said, smiling, "Spatial genetic multiplicity. It's a funny old world. Now, Torchwood, I want you to open up that Rift Manipulator and send all the power to me."

"Doing it now, sir." The other member of Torchwood, a young male, nodded to the Doctor and ran off to comply with his orders.

"What's that for?" Martha asked.

"A tow rope," the Doctor replied quickly, "Now then. Sarah, what was your son's name?"

"Luke, he's called Luke," Sarah Jane said proudly, "And the computer's called Mr. Smith."

"Eight more minutes!" sang Silver, who looked so tired she looked as if she was going to collapse.

"I'm trying," the Doctor said back, "Calling Luke and Mr. Smith!"

"C'mon, Luke, shake a leg!" Sarah Jane admonished as her son appeared on the screen, lounging on a sofa and staring dejectedly into nowhere. Luke started and stared at the monitor. Brightening, the young boy brought his face up to the camera and searched the image.

"Is Mum there?"

"Oh, she's fine and dandy," the Doctor replied, grinning, "Now, Mr. Smith, I want you to harness the Rift power and loop it around the Tardis. You got that?"

"I regret I will need remote access to TARDIS base code numerals," Mr. Smith said coolly.

"Blimey. That's going to take a while." The Doctor glanced at Silver, whose eyes widened as she slowly sunk down to her knees, her strength gradually draining away.

"No, no, no! Let me! K-9, out you come!" Sarah Jane cried.

"Affirmative, Mistress!" A small, robotic dog rolled into view, its ears twitching and its metal coat shining in the light.

The Doctor laughed at his old friend and said, "Good dog! K-9, give Mr. Smith the base code!"

"Master. Tardis base code now being transferred" K-9 said, and a large set of numerals appeared on Mr. Smith's monitor. "The process was simple," K-9 added, sounding slightly proud.

"Five minutes!" Silver gasped. She huffed and puffed with exhaustion as she leaned her forehead against the side of the console. Sweat dripped down her face, and she could barely keep her eyes open.

"We've got to hurry! Now then. You lot. Sarah, hold that, and Mickey, you hold that." The Doctor began to gesture to different levers and buttons, and his companions scrambled to comply.

"You know why this Tardis is always rattling about the place? Rose, that there. It was designed to have six pilots, and I have to do it single-handed. Martha, keep that level. But not anymore! Jack, there you go, steady that. Now we can fly this thing like it's meant to be flown."

The Doctor turned around to find his next companion and cringed a bit.

"No, Jackie, no, no. Not you." The Doctor smiled wryly, even though Jackie Tyler looked as if she wanted to throttle him. He patted her shoulder awkwardly and quickly retracted his hand. "Don't touch anything. Just… Stand back, okay?"

Jackie pouted but didn't talk. Obeying the Doctor's orders, she took a small step away from the console and leaned against the coral fixings muttering to herself.

"We've got the Torchwood Rift looped around the Tardis by Mr. Smith. We're going to fly planet Earth back home," the Doctor proclaimed grandly, "Right then! Off we go!"

The Doctor smiled, reached around Rose, and pulled a lever down. Everybody felt the Tardis lift, but there was not the usual shaking or shivering that accompanied the travel. The ride was quite smooth, and the Doctor and his companions worked flawlessly together.

Silver gasped and panted in her spot, and everybody stared at her worriedly. The young girl glanced up and raised her eyebrows. "I'm fine. I'll hold out for another minute or two."

As soon as Silver finished her sentence, the Tardis landed with a loud _thump_. With a gasp of relief, Silver tilted back and lay on the floor, panting and shaking with fatigue. As soon as her hands left the controls, the Tardis turned dark and quiet again. Everybody gathered around the young girl, who lay on the floor twitching and shivering.

"Are you alright?" Rose asked gently.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Silver pushed herself up from the ground wearily and winced. "I'm great," she assured, "C'mon. Let's see what Earth looks like when it's not in the Medusa Cascade, hm?"

Appeased with her quick recovery, everybody in the room grinned and raced out of the Tardis, eager to see what sight awaited them.

"Are you sure you're alright?" the Doctor asked, lingering behind and touching his companion's shoulder.

"Yes," Silver said, "I'm just not used to this new body is all. I'm so much more used to being a… box." Silver turned bright red and whipped around. The Doctor sighed and stared after her as she quickened her pace and rushed out of the room.

As soon as Silver was out of the Tardis, she ran to the back of the time machine and leaned against the blue wall, wheezing. She gripped her side, which cramped with such a pain that she could barely keep herself up. Everything hurt and pained, and she felt herself slowly deteriorating under the hurt.

"It's so funny," she muttered out loud, "So funny to be a human. I still feel like myself, just more… packed. How strange."

Silver turned around unsteadily and ran her hand over the blue wood slowly. This was what she'd been before, what she'd looked like, and frankly, she didn't want to go back. It was so free, so liberating, to be a human. She didn't want to be confined in the form of a box again. It was often so boring. Humans could do such marvelous things, like laughing and crying and jumping and dancing. She didn't want to stop being human.

Sighing, Silver let her hand press against the cold Tardis wall. Her walls used to be warm, radiating the heat of a soul. There was no life in there right now. It was just an empty shell, waiting for an essence to fill it up and become warm again.

Silver stared at her hand closely. The veins under the skin pulsated with a golden glow steadily becoming stronger and stronger.

"How strange it feels," she muttered, "to be dying."


	12. Chapter 12

The Doctor stood in front of the Tardis, letting his hand run over the sleek blue wood. He wondered what would become of Silver now. Or the Tardis. Or the Silver-Tardis? Just thinking about it made his brain ache. Would she be willing to turn back into his precious blue box? Was the real Silver even still alive?

"Doctor?"

Jumping a bit, the Doctor looked up from the Tardis to find Silver leaning against the time machine, looking slightly green. She gripped her side painfully and slid in the damp asphalt.

"Oh. Hello…"

"Are you alright?"

The Doctor nodded and smiled wryly. He still couldn't get used to her accent. It was just so… British.

"I'm fine. Just thinking is all."

"You're thinking that I should go back, aren't you?" Silver asked sadly. The Doctor hesitated, not wanting to hurt Silver's feelings. Then, he made up his mind and nodded warily.

Silver raised her head and looked down the empty street, where Rose, Sarah Jane, Martha, Mickey, Jackie, and Captain Jack currently stood, laughing and hugging each other joyfully.

"I like this," Silver admitted, looking at her small, fragile fingers, "Humans are so funny, yet so wonderful. They don't know what kind of gifts they have."

"You know she'll die," the Doctor said, ignoring Silver's comments, "She'll crumble and break and deteriorate into dust. Your presence is killing her."

Silver nodded. "I know. I can feel her now, pushing against me, battling a war. She's a strong one. Most would've been long gone, but nope. Silver's a good ol' fighter. I've always liked her."

"You're killing her."

"I know." Silver sighed and hung her head in shame. "So many emotions, tumbling and turning in my head."

"She is being burned alive. Not just her soul, but her body as well. You know you can't stay forever," The Time Lord took the young girl's face in his hands. "A Tardis matrix, its soul, is powerful. That body will one day turn to dust."

"I know," Silver said softly.

"She has a boyfriend. She'll be going to college soon. She has family and friends, and she is brilliant."

"I know."

"They why aren't you leaving?"

"Because I'm jealous."

"Jealous?"

"All those times," Silver admitted, "You always thought you needed a companion, Doctor. And you do. They're there to keep your mind sane and your wits intact, but companions leave and people die, Doctor. Sometimes I think you…"

"Think I what?" the Doctor asked quickly.

"Sometimes, I think you forget that I have a mind of my own." Silver looked up at the Doctor with sad eyes. "Sometimes, I worry that you will one day forget that I am living. That I really have thoughts. I fear that one day, you will think of me nothing more than just an old blue box."

"I-I would never think that," the Doctor stammered.

"All those times you thought you needed someone, someone to keep you in check. All those times you went through companions like tissues, throwing them out one after the other. All those times you went out at night drinking and who knows what else, when I was there, ready to understand what even Silver couldn't. All those times I was waiting. I wanted to help. I really did."

Silver toyed with the hem of her shirt contemplatively.

"Do you wonder why I chose you all those years ago?"

"I chose you," the Doctor protested, "You were unlocked."

"I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away. And you were the only one mad enough." Silver smiled. "In the end, you really are just a madman and his box."

"I suppose," the Doctor said, smiling. He looked at the old shell of the Tardis. It was just a police box now. The aura of majesty and elegance had left, and the blue wood seemed to have dimmed in color.

"I never intended to become so attached. I just came to remind you, to say that I'm still here. I never knew it'd be so… addicting to be a human," Silver said, "But I keep to my promises, and I promised myself that Silver would come back. I know how much joy she brings to you, and I can see what promises she holds. I wouldn't dare to keep such a girl from the universe, even if I could live a million human years."

"She's great," the Doctor said proudly, "but you. You are brilliant."

"I know." Silver preened at the Doctor's comment, but her face suddenly fell as she glanced back up at the Doctor's companions standing in the street. "But Doctor, I would like you to promise me something."

"Of course. Anything," the Doctor quickly replied.

"You are so sad, you old man. So sad and lonely and despairingly upset. You need someone, Doctor. Now don't go protesting!" Silver snapped as the Doctor opened his mouth.

"I don't _need_ anyone," the Doctor said through gritted teeth.

"Yes, you do," Silver said, "Because in the end of the day, I'm just as daft as you are. Both old, old creatures well beyond our limits, and we both need someone, Doctor, to keep us sane and sensible. Without a companion, we'd both go mad, and you know it, so don't try to lie to me."

"I suppose," the Doctor said slowly.

Silver smiled, and her gaze traveled to Rose Tyler, who was currently laughing at something Captain Jack had said. Her eyes twinkled, and her hair flew out behind her in the wind. She'd been in Rose's head once, when she was the Bad Wolf, and that was the first time she'd gotten a taste of the human mind.

"Talk to her," Silver suggested. The Doctor followed Silver's gaze and started.

"She's changed," he said, quickly recovering from the surprise.

"So have you."

"No, I…"

Silver glared at the Doctor exasperatedly, and he sighed, finally giving up on the argument.

"Oh, I have, haven't I?" The Doctor smiled, but his eyes remained sad and upset. Silver reached up and touched the Doctor's cheek gently.

"I've been looking for a word. A big, complicated word, but so sad. I found it now."

"What word?"

"Alive," Silver said breathlessly, "I'm alive."

"Alive isn't sad," the Doctor countered.

"It is when it's over." Silver smiled at the Doctor. "I'll always be here, Doctor, but this is when we talked. And even now, that has come to an end. Come. My home is waiting."

Silver stepped up to the blue police box and pulled open its doors.

"You see, Doctor? You pull. That's how you're supposed to open it," Silver reminded, raising an eyebrow at the Doctor. He smiled wanly at her joke, but the smile never reached his eyes. The Doctor was already dreading the goodbye.

The young girl walked into the console room and gave a sharp intake of breath. Everything was dark and bleak, nothing like the warm, welcoming control room it should've been. Her presence had been gone for too long, and her home was already suffering from the loss of her spirit.

"I will always be here," Silver said to the Doctor as she took her place in front of the coral fixings of her home.

The Doctor nodded. "I know."

As if sensing the arrival of her spirit, the Tardis began to pulsate. Silver's body seemed to attract the air in the Tardis, and soon, the Doctor found the atmosphere around him becoming humid and uncomfortable. However, he refused to leave, not wanting to leave Silver alone.

Silver gasped, and the Doctor inched closer. That was a real Silver gasp, a sharp intake of breath that actually sounded like his previous companion. The young girl closed her eyes and clenched her fist. Everything went quiet, the only sound being Silver's labored breaths. Suddenly, Silver opened her eyes again, and her hair flew out behind her. The Doctor choked in shock and stumbled back, shielding his eyes.

Her eyes were golden, her pupils pulsating with light so bright that the Doctor squinted in their wake. Silver's whole body was glowing, and tendrils of illumination swirled away from her body like a mass of quiet fireworks. Silver's body became brighter and brighter, and the air became stifling and arid, even though Silver's hair blew to and fro with the help of an imaginary wind. Then, with a great gasp of relief, Silver released her light and allowed the yellow glow to swirl freely around the room. The young girl crashed to the floor, unconscious, but the Doctor was too amazed by the lightshow around him to notice. Wisps of light danced and twirled around the Tardis, touching her walls and disappearing into her form. With each touch, the Tardis seemed to brighten more and more, until at last, all the strands of light were gone, and the Tardis had been turned back into her normal, humming and whirring, self.

"Blimey," the Doctor breathed, running a hand through his hair in awe. At his feet, Silver coughed a bit, and instantly, the Doctor was on his knees, cradling Silver's head and pushing her hair out of her face.

"Silver? Silver! How do you feel? Are you alright? Can you hear me?" the Doctor shook Silver's body slightly, trying to arouse more reaction.

"Oh my God, my throat tastes like a dead corpse," Silver rasped.

The Doctor gasped and clutched her tighter.

"Quick!" he cried, "Say something! Anything!"

"Will you shut your yapping and help me up? Ugh, is that _blood _pounding in my ears?" Silver grasped the side of her head and winced at the slight throbbing. The Doctor laughed victoriously and hugged her tightly.

"Your accent!" he said eagerly, "Your accent! It's American again!"

"Is that a good thing?" Silver asked slowly.

"It's brilliant! Fantastic! Superb! Oh your accent! Your beautiful, beautiful accent!" The Doctor was so joyful that he could've kissed her. Instead of going to the extremes, he settled himself with a tight hug and an affectionate peck on her forehead, to which Silver grimaced at and wiped away furiously. The Doctor quickly stood up and helped Silver into a standing position.

"Do you need anything?" he asked urgently, "Water? Food? Medication? Do you feel warm? Cold? Feverish?"

"Um, Doctor, are you okay?" Silver asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh I am fine. I'm just glad you're…" The Doctor stopped, searching for the right word. A big, complicated word, that was so sad, but right now, also so happy.

"Doctor?" Silver asked again.

"I'm just glad you're alive, Silver," the Doctor said, pulling her into a tight hug.

o.O.o

"Hey Rose."

Captain Jack grunted as he sat down next to the woman, clasping his hands and trying to get comfortable on the sidewalk. Rose started in surprise and grasped Jack's shoulder for support.

"Sorry, I thought you were…"

Rose drifted off, sighing and looking back down at her lap.

"You thought I was the Doctor?"

"Yeah," Rose admitted.

After a slight pause, Jack turned to Rose and asked, "Why don't you talk to him?"

Rose snorted. "I've been trying for the whole night, in case you haven't noticed. I wouldn't be surprised, considering the fact you've been flirting with Mickey nonstop for the whole night."

Jack wrinkled his nose. "Gross," he said, looking so comically mortified that even Rose giggled.

"You two are like an old batty married couple constantly fighting," Rose teased.

"Like I said. Gross," Jack repeated, looking genuinely disgusted. Rose was surprised. Mickey was probably the only person in all of the universes combined that Captain Jack Harkness wouldn't shag.

"I think I just gagged in my mouth," Jack said, dramatically rubbing his throat. Rose chuckled and propped her elbows on her knees, letting her chin rest in the palms of her hands.

"And stop trying to change the subject," Jack added angrily, "I've been wanting to ask you this all night. What happened with you and the Doctor?"

Rose sighed and looked down at her hands. "I thought you'd know. After all, you were the one who was supposed to talk to him a few hours ago, weren't you?"

Jack snorted. "In case you didn't notice, I was in a life-or-death situation. Trying to understand his Time Lord angst was the least of my worries."

Shooting Jack a look, Rose grumbled, "You're not making me feel any better, Jack."

"Alright. Sorry. Let me try again." Jack cleared his throat. "Would you like to talk about your feelings, Rosie-poo?" Jack asked with such fake sincerity that Rose guffawed into her hands.

"See, you're already looking better!" Jack said, brightening.

"Yeah, but it still didn't solve the problem," Rose countered.

"You know, you two can't just let this slide," Jack said, suddenly turning serious, "It's not something you can just ignore. You'll have to talk it out. You two can't just stand there acting like you're complete strangers. You two are acting like two awkward teenagers on their first date."

"We're not acting like that. I'll have you know that I've been tolerating the Doctor for the whole night."

"Being forced into the same room because a couple of Daleks are ready to laser you to death isn't valid," Jack quickly retorted.

"Well, that's just-"

"Face it, Rose," Jack interrupted, shaking his head, "The second we got off of the Tardis, you were out of there faster than a bullet."

"But he's… changed."

"So have you."

"I have not!"

"You have!" Jack turned to Rose and threw his hands up exasperatedly. "And I thought the Doctor was clueless."

"I didn't change," Rose muttered stubbornly.

"Ripped away from your world. Away from the man you love. Spend two years in a parallel universe where everything is the same, yet different, too. Come on, Rose. Even you have to admit you've changed a bit."

Rose looked down at her hands. "I guess I'm a bit different," she relented. She quickly brought her head up and turned to face Jack. "But he's changed, too, right?"

"Exactly."

"So does that mean he doesn't…?"

"Of course he does," Jack gently said, putting a reassuring hand on Rose's arm.

"How do you know?" Rose asked, sounding like a three year old inquiring her mother about the monster under the bed.

"Because I've seen the way he looks at you," Jack said shortly, meaning that the conversation was now over.

"So what do I do now?" Rose asked after a small amount of silence.

"Talk to him," Jack replied slowly.

With a small twitch of her mouth, Rose stood up and patted Jack's shoulder.

"Thanks, Captain."

"Any time, Rosie."

With a small grin at Jack, Rose turned and confidently strolled up to the Tardis. She was already reciting what she would say to the Doctor, what his reactions would be, and what the conversation would be like. She was already rehearsing her lines and memorizing his, trying to predict what would come. He wasn't going to walk away this time. Nope. Even if she had to strap him down to a chair and tape his mouth shut, he would listen to her speak, whether he liked it or not.

Rose reached out and touched the handle of the Tardis, but quickly retracted her hand. The Tardis was heating up, like a giant oven. Yelping, Rose blew on her twitching fingers and glanced up at the time machine's window. They were glowing slightly. That was odd. The Tardis should've been dark, its soul trapped in Silver's body. Nothing should've been lit in there. Unless…

With a gasp, Rose whipped around and screamed, "Jack! Martha! Anybody! Come on!"

"Rose, what's wrong?" Jackie Tyler ran up to her daughter, alarmed at the sudden screams of her daughter.

"It's the Tardis," Rose said, pointing.

"What's wrong with the Tardis," Sarah Jane asked worriedly.

"Just look!" Rose cried, gesturing at the time machine desperately. Everybody raised their heads and watched in wide-eyed confusion as the windows of the Tardis glowed with intense light and illumination.

"Is it on fire?" Mickey asked as the radiance seemed to flicker like a torch.

"No," Jack said, stepping forward, "She's back."

At Jack's words, the light inside the Tardis brightened intensely, so much that everyone took a cautionary step back. The London buildings were illuminated with a soft glow, and confused pedestrians wandering the streets stared in shock at the glowing police box.

With a soft crackle, the light died down, and everybody tensed. They heard or saw nothing, but everyone, even Jackie, had a sense of relief and reassurance pass over them, as if a forgotten guardian angel had come back. Seconds of premonition and anticipation passed, and all of the Doctor's companions leaned in eagerly.

Then, the Tardis doors swung open, and the Doctor proudly stepped out of the blue box, one of his hands supporting a pale, weak-looking Silver covered in sweat.

"Silver!" Rose cried, jumping forward and swooping the young girl in a tight hug.

"There she is! Looking better already!" Jack congratulated, patting Silver on the back eagerly. Everybody else crowded the young girl, bombarding her with questions and exclamations.

"Did I miss something?" Silver asked, raising an eyebrow at everybody's excitement of her arrival.

"Your accent," Martha gushed.

"It's… American!" Sarah Jane gasped.

"Alright, now I'm seriously confused," Silver said, pulling away from Rose's tight embrace, "First the Doctor, and now you guys. What happened? And why are we still here? Does nobody remember the Daleks? Crucible? Anybody?"

"Don't you remember anything?" Jack asked, bewildered.

"What do you mean?" Silver asked, shaking her head, "I don't get it."

Everybody gaped at the young girl.

"Did I grow two heads? Do I have green hair? What? What happened? Tell me!" Silver whined.

Rose uncertainly glanced at the Doctor, who surreptitiously shook his head. With a small smile, Rose slung an arm over Silver's shoulder.

"Everything's going to be alright, Silver," Rose vowed, "I promise."


	13. Chapter 13

"She doesn't remember a single thing," the Doctor whispered in a low voice. The others listened attentively, glancing down the corridor every once in a while. Silver, now returned to her normal self, had complained of a terrible headache and retired to her room for slumber, but the Tardis was still adjusting to being a time machine again, and Silver's room was only two doors down from the console room.

"Nothing?" Mickey asked in disbelief, "Not even going up to the Crucible?" 

"No," the Doctor said, shaking his head, "I questioned her. She only remembers standing in the streets waiting to board the Tardis. The rest is all a blur." The Doctor eyed all of his companions down seriously. "I don't want any of you telling her what happened tonight."

The Doctor's orders were met with a flurry of whispered protests, but as soon as the Time Lord held his hand up, the others shut their mouths and watched the Doctor in anticipation.

"She's tired, drained from trying to fight the Tardis Matrix out of her body. We can't tell her she was another person. I know Silver. The Tardis and I know Silver," the Doctor said, subconsciously setting a hand on the Tardis's console. The time machine whirred in agreement.

"Silver's very personal about things," the Doctor explained, "To tell her would make her feel uncomfortable, and frankly, I don't think any of us would want to know what happened on that Dalek ship tonight. Am I right?"

As predicted, nobody said anything. They all remembered the prophecies, the flames, the agonizing death screams. Jackie and Mickey themselves had witnessed innocent humans turned to nothingness. To forget all that had happened would be bliss.

"So we don't tell her?" Jack asked doubtfully, "We just let her stay pure?"

"I told you, she's more fragile than most of you," the Doctor said, "Not physically, but mentally. Now, most of you here have known me for several years. You're accustomed to the pain, the killing, the murdering."

"It's not your fault," Rose began, but the Doctor quickly interrupted her.

"I'm not just talking about myself. I'm talking about the universe. Whether we like it or not, in the end of the day, not everybody lives," the Doctor said gravely, "Silver doesn't know that. Not well enough, I'm afraid. She's only been traveling with me for a few months, and I'm worried that…" The Doctor hesitated and sighed, shaking his head. "I'm worried that she'll feel disgusted of herself to learn that she murdered millions of lives with one sweep of her hand, whether she was aware of it or not."

"But what do we tell her?" Sarah Jane asked, "You can't just tell her she lost her memory while defeating a whole Dalek fleet. She's eighteen years old! She'd never believe us."

"I've already got that covered," the Doctor said calmly, "I told her we were in the Tardis, and a piece of the coral fixing fell on her head, knocking her unconscious. We didn't have time to help her, on account of the Dalek fleet, so we left her in the medical room while we fought off the Daleks with a Warp Crystal."

"Does she know what a Warp Crystal is?" Captain Jack asked worriedly.

The Doctor stared at Jack exasperatedly. "She didn't even know all of the planets of the solar system. She probably thinks the Warp Crystal is a really shiny jewel that blows stuff up."

"Did she ask why she was on the floor of the console room?" Martha piped up.

"I said that I was trying to get her out of the door for some fresh air, but I dropped her on the ground and knocked her head against the grating."

Mickey snorted. "How did she react to that?"

The Doctor frowned. "She slapped me."

"Oh, she's just like a Tyler," Jackie cooed, looking down at Silver's corridor affectionately. The Doctor brought a hand up to his cheek, grimacing at Jackie's expression.

"Anyhow," he said loudly, "I want all of you to promise me that you won't tell her anything. Do I have your word?"

Everybody glanced at each other worriedly, not quite knowing what to do. They wanted to be kind, to keep a young girl pure, but at the same time, to pretend that none of it ever happened didn't seem to be a very thoughtful choice.

"You've got my word." Captain Jack stepped forward, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his trench coat. Glancing around at the others, Jack shrugged and said, "What? She's just a kid."

"So is Luke," Sarah Jane argued, "He's fourteen, only four years younger than Silver. What makes him any different?"

"He had you for a mother," the Doctor said, "He has you to keep him safe, to talk to. Silver…" The Doctor's voice drifted off as he stared down Silver's corridor. "She's only got me to talk to when it comes to… You know, time travel and stuff, and everybody knows I'm not a very good conversationalist when it comes to these kind of things."

"I won't tell her," Mickey said, stepping forward, "It's the least I can do."

"Me too," Martha agreed, linking her arm around Mickey's, "She's a good kid."

"Well, I suppose if everybody else is promising it, I guess it won't hurt to," Sarah Jane admitted, joining Martha, Mickey, and Captain Jack. There was a considerable amount of silence as everybody stared at Jackie and Rose expectantly. There was a long, squeezing tension in the room that made everyone hold their breath, until finally, Jackie sighed and stepped forward.

"I'm in," Jackie Tyler said, standing next to Sarah Jane. Rose was the only one left.

"Rose?" the Doctor said quietly, staring at her.

Looking up from her feet, the blond woman sighed looked down Silver's corridor.

"I don't know."

The Doctor twitched his head worriedly, staring at the young woman before him. He'd loved her once. Why, he'd been willing to die for her back then. Would he be willing to do that now? It had been two years. Those two years had passed slowly. He'd been wanting her for so long, but why was it that now, of all times, that he felt a sense of betrayal and disappointment in her? He couldn't control his emotions, but it seemed that every time he looked at Rose, the Doctor felt as if he were staring at a canvas of multicolored paints, each one more confusing than the last. He couldn't understand her.

"She's real smart," Rose said quietly, "Brave. You don't think she can take it?"

"Being brave isn't everything," the Doctor answered, "She's fragile, not as used to it. I haven't gone on a real escapade in several months, and I've always been careful to keep her from death. I'm afraid she won't be able to handle it."

"I handled it, and I was only a couple years older than her," Rose said.

The Doctor stared at Rose stonily. Was she jealous? Was she feeling betrayed? Sighing deeply, the Doctor turned away from Rose to stare at the coral fixings.

"Rose, dear, please have some sense," Jackie begged, "She's just a kid. She didn't have to grow up quickly like you did. With your father dying and all…"

"This isn't about Pete," Rose quickly replied, "It's about him being unfair to me. To us. What makes her more fragile, more important, than the rest of us? Hm?"

"I'm not playing favorites, if that's what you're trying to say," the Doctor angrily rumbled, turning around and staring his companions down, "I'm just trying to…" The Doctor hesitated, shutting his mouth and thinking for a second. Sighing, the Doctor leaned his head back and rubbed his neck.

"Her innocence gives me hope for the rest of the universe," he explained, "It reminds me that there are still people out there that don't know me, that don't know this." The Doctor gestured to nothing in particular. "I don't want her to get used to the killing and the murder. I want her to hold time travel as something to be cherished, something to be studied and discovered and awed at. I want her to keep loving it."

There was complete silence around the Tardis. Even the time machine's whirring had stopped, and everybody on board stared at the Doctor in shock and worry. Then, Rose Tyler stepped forward.

"I won't tell her," Rose said quietly.

"Thanks," the Doctor replied, still maintaining a bit of his coldness.

After an awkward amount of silence, Mickey loudly cleared his throat and clapped his hands.

"I'm starved. You got any food on this thing?" he asked, and everybody instantly agreed, pestering the Doctor for something to eat.

"Third corridor, fifth door on the left," the Doctor said, gesturing at the hall. Chattering loudly, the group of people loudly clomped down the corridor.

"You coming, Doctor?" Captain Jack asked, turning around and slightly smirking. The Doctor returned the smile with a slight grin, but shook his head.

"I think I'll go outside for a bit. Fresh air, you know?" the Doctor said. Jack nodded and left the control room, leaving the Doctor alone again.

o.O.o

The Doctor felt a slight rumble and shake at his fingertips as he closed the Tardis door behind him.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said testily, "I'm just going to think, alright?"

With a satisfied whine, the Tardis quieted and allowed the Doctor some privacy outside her doors. With a burdened sigh, the Doctor plopped down on the sidewalk and watched the streets of London fill with pedestrians. It seemed that not everybody was feeling quite safe enough to come out yet, but there was still a sizable crowd in the streets pointing at the familiar moon in the sky and laughing in joy.

The Doctor smiled at a young couple finally reunited after the long frightful day. The black-haired man swept the brunette girl off her feet and twirled her in the air, her brown braids askew in the wind.

"You're okay," the woman said happily as her loved one set her down on the sidewalk. She slipped her hands behind his head and gently pressed her forehead against his.

"Of course I am," the man replied, kissing his girlfriend on the nose and pulling her close to him. Before the Doctor could see anything else, the crowd covered the embracing couple and the two people disappeared.

Setting his chin in his hands, the Doctor bit his bottom lip and scrunched his eyebrows together. Humans were so naïve sometimes. They'd just escaped the complete annihilation of the universe, yet their first instinct was to make sure their loved ones were okay. Nobody was yelling. Nobody was screaming or cursing or sobbing. They were all so happy, so thankful that everybody was safe.

Now, if only all civilizations were like the humans. Sure these people had their flaws, such as their lack of perspective and their constant craving for safety, but there were some people out there in the universe that needed a small boost of justice, or happiness, or love. These humans were capable of so much more. Their brain capacities and quick growth in technological development could make them one of the most powerful civilizations in the galaxy, yet it seemed that the only thing that stopped them was their hatred for making sacrifices. One couldn't explore the depths of the universe without risking safety, without stepping over the boundaries.

_Yet perhaps it's not so bad_, the Doctor thought as a group of young men passed in front of him, clapping each other on the backs and laughing. _Sometimes, the rest of the universe knows too much. _

"You know, you really have to learn to label the food in your fridge," someone said. The Doctor jerked his head up from his thoughts to find Silver plunking herself down next to him on the concrete. She wore no shoes.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor quickly asked, going into autopilot mode, "Do you need some medicine? Is your head feeling okay? Any flashing lights in your brain? Why aren't you wearing any shoes?"

"Because the ones I was wearing were singed at the heels for some reason, and my closet disappeared. I asked around, and Jack said that the Tardis is just growing back. Something about a crucible engine ventripi-what-cha-ma-call-it. I stopped trying to understand after the fifth syllable. Why didn't you tell me that your refrigerator was bigger on the inside? There's enough food in there to last me days! Did you know you have a jar of alien eyeballs in your freezer?"

The Doctor's eyes widened. "You found the Marzupian Slug Eyestalks?"

"Yeah, right after Mickey tried to eat one," Silver said with a deadpan voice. The Doctor's eyes grew even larger.

"His uvula didn't touch any of the aqueous humor, did it? The Marzupians secrete a special liquid on their eyeball membranes that fiddle with your cerebrum and make your right arm turn into a-"

"Don't want to know," Silver interrupted, holding up a hand, "Don't worry. Mickey put them back when the one in his hand blinked at him."

The Doctor nodded his head. "Good. Good." Then, with a monotonous grunt, the Doctor turned back the street and placed his chin on his hands.

"I just came to talk to you about Rose," Silver began, but the Doctor quickly shook his head, quieting his companion.

"Not a valid conversation topic, sorry," the Doctor said shortly.

"Doctor, you know you're going to have to talk to her sometime."

"I know, but…"

"Don't try that 'she's changed' stuff with me, Doctor," Silver warned, "Because that is a horrible excuse."

"I know, I know. She's changed, but I've changed, too. You told me already."

Silver raised an eyebrow. "I did?"

The Doctor mentally slapped the palm of his hand to his forehead. Of course Silver was out of the blue. She hadn't been conscious when the Doctor and her had that heart-to-heart. That had been the Tardis talking to him. _Idiot, _he thought to himself, but on the outside, the Doctor smiled wanly and patted Silver on the shoulder.

"It was when the coral fell on your head. You were just telling me what to do when you went down."

"Oh, okay." Silver nodded, seeming to believe the story. The Doctor's hearts stopped pumping nervously, and he wiped his brow. For a second there, he'd almost given away the secret.

"So," the Doctor continued, hoping to get something good out of his little mess-up, "What advice were you planning to give me before, you know, you fainted."

Silver shrugged. "I don't even remember what I told you."

"I was worried that Rose had changed too much, but you said that I'd changed, too," the Doctor piped up.

"That was the advice I gave you?" Silver asked in surprise, "Geez, I didn't know I was so deep." Silver sighed. "Well, I guess if I were to continue on with the whole advice thing, I'd tell you to go for it. Talk to Rose."

"It's not as easy as it sounds."

"How so?"

The Doctor looked down. "She won't even look at me."

"That's because you've been avoiding her for the whole day," Silver said exasperatedly.

"It's not that easy, you know," the Doctor muttered, "I've got to approach her and initiate conversation and actually use my vocal chords."

"You're such a wuss," Silver muttered. The Doctor opened his mouth object, but suddenly, it was as if a cartoon light bulb had gone off above Silver's head.

"Wait a second," she said, rapidly bringing her hand up and almost slapping the Doctor for the second time that day, "Wait a second! I'm having a revelation here!" Silver cried, flapping her arms around excitedly.

The Doctor narrowly ducked one of Silver's hands and grumbled, "Why does it seem that every time I'm around you, I get injured one way or another?"

Silver annoyed the Doctor's remark and faced him victoriously. "You are afraid!"

Turning a fierce shade of red, the Doctor narrowed his eyes and shook his head decisively. "Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!" Silver grinned and crossed her arms, getting close to the Doctor's blushing face. "High and mighty Time Lord, superior anatomy and all that, afraid of confronting to his long-distance friend who may or may not be a love interest, huh?"

The Doctor became crimson and his hair seemed to stick up from his scalp even straighter. "I'm not afraid," he said.

"You are!" Silver jumped up and danced around as the Doctor scowled at her hopping feet. "You're scared of conversing with Rose! You are scared! Oh this is gold!"

"Stop it!" the Doctor whined, sounding like a toddler, but this only fanned the flames, and Silver hooted loudly.

"All those times you were all proud and snooty, going on and on about how Time Lords are more advanced and higher up and whatnot. You with your two hearts and quick healing process, but you are afraid to talk to a girl!"

"Stop it!" the Doctor begged again, his voice an octave higher.

"Why didn't you just say that you were scared?" Silver asked, wiping tears of laugher from her face, "Goodness, this is so easy to solve."

"I'm not scared," the Doctor said, frowning, "She's changed, remember?"

"Yeah, and that's why you've been stalling for the past two hours, even that supposedly superior brain of yours figured out that yes, everybody changes," Silver teased.

"W-well," the Doctor stammered, trying to find another excuse.

"Don't even bother!" Silver teased, "You were over the whole changing thing hours ago. You're just scared something bad will happen! The Doctor is scared!"

"Alright, you've made your point," the Doctor grumbled, "Now tell me what to do."

Silver rolled her eyes. "You talk to her."

"I thought we already established that I was… Y'know…"

The young girl raised an eyebrow at the Doctor's evident discomfort. "That you're scared?"

The Doctor looked down at his lap and twitched uncontrollably. "Yeah. That."

"How about this?" Silver offered, sitting back down next to the Doctor, "If you go in there and make up with Rose and all that, I'll make you some of my special Banana Nut Muffin Bread."

As soon as Silver mentioned her special homemade concoction, the Doctor looked up from his brooding position like an alert puppy. She'd obviously gotten his attention.

"Your Banana Nut Muffin Bread?" the Doctor asked hopefully, "The one you made me the first night you found me…" The Doctor's voice drifted off, so Silver finished the sentence for him.

"Yes, the one I made you the first night I you got drunk on some alien planet."

The Doctor whimpered a bit, thinking of the delicious Banana Nut Muffin Bread Silver was taunting him with. It was what Silver had given him when he'd gotten drunk. They'd only been travelling together for two weeks at the time, and when the Doctor arrived back at the Tardis stumbling about and moaning for bananas, Silver fed him some of her Banana Nut Muffin Bread to calm his nerves. The bread had done wonders, and by the next night, the Doctor was already begging for more.

"The one with the…" the Doctor began hopefully.

"Yes," Silver finished, "The one with the almonds."

For a second, the Doctor seemed as if he was going to agree. Then, his expression hardened and he crossed his arms. "What makes you think I'll agree to such a petty offer?" the Doctor asked, trying to seem as if he couldn't care less.

"Oh, but Doctor," Silver said, shaking her head, "I'm making it with those special bananas."

The Doctor's pupils became dilated. "You mean the Smashalian bananas I wanted you to make it with?"

"Yep."

Still, the Doctor was not pleased. "What about those Willhelminian nuts? Hm? The ones with the gnashing teeth?"

Silver hesitated, and the Doctor grinned. She surely wouldn't agree to use the Willhelminian nuts. He'd offered her a bagful of those the second time she'd made the Banana Nut Muffin Bread, but with one look at their sharp teeth and jagged molars, Silver had declined and stuck with the original recipe.

"The big brown ones with teeth?" Silver asked in a small voice.

"Yep!" the Doctor said, popping the end of the word with a resounding _pop_. Silver frowned, and the Doctor silently cheered in victory. She wouldn't dare touch those Whillhelminian nuts. She'd be too repulsed.

However, much to the Doctor's disappointment, Silver steeled herself and nodded.

"Alright," she said bravely, "I'll do it. I'll use the nuts and the bananas, even though I'm going to lose a few fingers, I'll do it for the sake of mine and everybody else's sanity."

"Really?" the Doctor said, "You'll do it?"

"Yes, but only if you keep your part of the deal."

The Doctor thought about it for a second. Although talking to Rose made his hearts thump with uneasiness and his underarms break out in perspiration, the Doctor imagined the delicious Banana Nut Muffin Bread Silver would have waiting for him once he was done. Just the thought of the delicious outer crust and mouth-watering banana center made the Doctor swallow thickly.

"Deal," the Doctor said confidently, taking Silver's hand and shaking it well.

"Doctor, I am braving chopping and grinding nuts with enough teeth to chew my hand off for this. Don't disappoint me," Silver said seriously.

"I won't. I promise."

"And if you do break your deal, I'll…" Silver thought about it for a moment, and soon, a large, wicked grin spread across her face.

"What? What'll you do?" the Doctor asked.

"I'll give the Banana Nut Muffin Bread to Mickey and make you watch as he eats all of it."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "I can assure you that I won't break my promise."


	14. Chapter 14

**Hello everybody! Goodness gracious, I haven't talked to all of you in a while. This will be the second to last chapter of Oh, Doctor. Don't worry though! There will be an epilogue, and I've already got an idea for another story! **

**Sorry I haven't been updating as much as I did at first. I've just finished my final exams, and my graduation was yesterday! That's right, I'm a freshman now! However, it's summer, and I'll try to be more consistent with my projects. **

**Love ya! And remember, reviews are the blood in my veins. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. Preposterous. Inconceivable. **

* * *

><p>The playground was devoid of the usual laughing children and worried parents. It was long after sundown, and any sane parent would've known better than to let their child run free after what had just happened. The human population gone into space, been attacked by aliens, and returned back to the solar system all in the comfort of their own homes. The parents wanted their children safe.<p>

And so did Sarah Jane. She felt her heart beat faster and faster as the Tardis slowly materialized in the dark, eerie playground. It was nighttime, and she couldn't help but worry about Luke.

She slowly stepped out of the blue box and looked around. Everything seemed so normal. The chains on the swing sets clanked as a breeze blew through the park, and the trees at the edge of the play structure rustled with every gust of wind.

"Ready to go?" the Doctor asked, stepping up behind Sarah Jane and gazing out at the park.

"Yeah," Sarah Jane replied.

"I'll miss you, Sarah Jane."

Sarah Jane turned to the Doctor and raised an eyebrow.

"Y'know, you act like such a lonely man, but look at you. You've got the biggest family on Earth!"

Sarah Jane smiled and the Doctor managed a weak grin. She grabbed him and gave him a good, tight hug before stepping back.

"Gotta go. He's only fourteen," Sarah Jane said, referring to Luke, "Long story."

Sarah Jane stepped away from the Doctor and began jogging back to her home. About halfway through the park, she looked over her shoulder and grinned at the Doctor.

"And thank you!" Sarah Jane yelled before disappearing around a corner. The Doctor smiled and turned to go back into his Tardis.

o.O.o

Martha, Captain Jack, and the Doctor stood on the empty street. Behind them, the shops were dark and empty, and a few windowpanes had been smashed open. It seemed that the hooligans had found this place, too. The Doctor, Martha, and Captain Jack stepped away from the Tardis, the bits of glass clicking beneath their feet.

"G'bye, Doctor," Martha said as she hugged the Doctor. She stepped away from him and turned with Jack to leave, but before they could even take a step, the Doctor grabbed Jack and turned him around.

"What're you doing?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow as the Doctor lifted Jack's wrist strap and sonicked it with his screwdriver.

"What have I told you?" the Doctor reprimanded, "No teleports!"

The Doctor released Jack's hand and confiscated his teleport, stuffing it deep within the pocket of his coat.

"Oh, and Martha," the Doctor said, turning to his ex-companion, "Get rid of that Osterhaagen thing. Save the world, one more time."

"Consider it done," Martha said confidently.

"You know, I'm not so sure about UNIT these days. Maybe there's something else you could be doing…" Jack said, turning around with Martha in his hand. The duo strolled away from the Doctor into the quiet city.

The Doctor sighed and turned around, only to find Mickey Smith stepping out of the Tardis.

"Where are you going?" the Doctor asked suspiciously.

"I'm not stupid. I can work out what's happening next," Mickey said, rolling his eyes, "Hey, I had a good time in that parallel world. My Gran passed away, nice and peaceful. She spent her last years living in the mansion! But there's nothing left for me there now. Certainly not Rose."

Mickey gave the Doctor a meaningful stare.

"What will you do?" the Doctor asked worriedly.

"Anything! Brand new life! Just you watch me! See ya, boss."

Mickey held up his fist, and after a slight pause, the Doctor sighed with resignation and fist bumped him back. Grinning, Mickey turned down the street.

"Hey, you two!" Mickey cried, running down the lane to catch up with Martha and Captain Jack.

"Oh, I thought I got rid of you!" Captain Jack's voice drifted back to the Doctor, who chuckled and slipped back into the Tardis.

o.O.o

This was the final stop, the last one. The Doctor gripped the edges of the console and nervously watched Silver, Jackie, and Rose chat in the corner of the room. Jackie had seemed to take on a curious liking to Silver, and the Doctor frowned as the older Tyler laughed at something Silver had said.

The sound of the Tardis's brakes screeched, and everybody's heads whirled to the doorway.

"Where are we?" Silver asked, being the first to step out on the grim, sandy beach.

"Well, fat lot of good this is," Jackie Tyler complained, "Back of beyond, bloody Norway!"

Jackie turned to Rose. "I'll have to phone your father. He's on the nursery run."

Looking back at the Doctor, Jackie explained, "I was pregnant, remember? Had a little baby boy."

"Brilliant!" the Doctor said, beaming, "What'd you call him?"

"Doctor," Jackie replied lightly.

"Really?" the Doctor asked, looking both hopeful and flattered at the same time.

"No you plum," Jackie said, instantly making the expression disappear off of the Doctor's face, "He's called Tony."

"Tony Tyler?" the Doctor repeated, raising an eyebrow. Then, he nodded his approval. "Okay. Nice."

"But hold on." Rose stepped out of the Tardis and looked out in the distance. The sand beneath her feet was slightly damp, and cool waves of the bay rushed in at each pull of the tide.

Rose looked up at the Doctor. "This is the parallel universe, right?"

"You're back home," the Doctor said, "The walls of the world are closing again. The Reality Bomb never happened. It's a dimensional retroclosure."

Rose just stared at the Doctor, her eyebrows knitted together. The Doctor couldn't read her expression. Was that fear? Shame? Relief?

"You're home. You've got your mum, Pete, and apparently Tony now," the Doctor said, looking away from Rose and bringing his hand to the back of his neck, "I've brought you back where you belong."

"I don't belong here."

"Yes, you do," the Doctor insisted, turning to Rose.

"No, I don't," Rose argued, "I belong in the Tardis, with you. I established that long ago, and I'm never backing out on that promise. I said I'd be with you. Forever."

"Rose," the Doctor managed. He honestly couldn't say anything else. How was he supposed to respond to something like that?

"Don't look at me with those eyes and say, 'Rose', because that doesn't work," Rose said angrily, balling her hands into small fists. She straightened her back and rose to her full height, and although the Doctor was much taller than Rose, he seemed to shrink under her gaze.

"I traveled with you for two years," Rose said, her voice breaking, "We ran together, fought together, laughed together, cried together. I never stopped loving it. I told you that I loved you that day. What, you think that I was lying? That it was just a whim? A spur of the moment kind of thing? You're wrong, Doctor. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I never stopped trying to come back. I devoted two years of studying to get myself back. I spent sleepless nights trying to work out this broken piece, or that faulty equipment, just to come to you. I never gave up, Doctor, because I said forever. Because I loved…"

Rose's sentence drifted off, and her mouth hung open in midsentence. The Doctor stared back at Rose, his mouth slightly agape as well. Then, Rose cleared her throat.

"Because I still love you," she corrected softly.

"Oh, Rose," the Doctor quietly sighed.

"And I came back," Rose continued, ignoring the Doctor's broken expression, "I came back for you, and you didn't say a word. I thought you'd be happy, that you'd be overjoyed, just like I was when I saw you at first, but you weren't. You forgot, didn't you? Forgot that I'd loved you. You forgot that I grabbed your hand when there was nothing left to hold, that I smiled at you when you'd lost hope. I tried to give you so much. I wanted to give you so much, but you forgot. You forgot me."

"Rose. I never forgot you," the Doctor said, remembering all those times he'd gone away into the dark just to remember her, to recall her back to his memory, "I could never forget you."

"Then give me a reason," Rose ordered, the corners of her eyes beginning to wet, "Give me a reason why you turned your back on me when I came back for you."

The Doctor's bottom lip quivered. He snuck a glance at Silver, who narrowed her eyes and gestured to Rose eagerly. Swallowing nervously, he straightened his suit and ran a hand through his hair.

"I loved you. I loved you so much," the Doctor said.

"Then why'd you turn your back?"

"Because you killed the Dalek," the Doctor said, and Rose tilted her head to the side.

"I… what?"

"You killed that Dalek. Without a warning you just… killed it."

"Doctor, it was going to kill you," Rose said exasperatedly.

"Yes, I know, but remember that time, a long time ago? When you met your first Dalek, and you negotiated with it. You talked to it?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah."

"Well don't you see?" the Doctor cried, "You killed it in cold blood! That was different! Unexpected! You changed! And yes, I know that I've changed to, so shut it," the Doctor quickly said. Silver and Jackie both simultaneously closed their mouths and looked down at their feet awkwardly.

"So you're saying that I have no heart now," Rose said sadly, "That I've got no more love inside of me."

"No!" the Doctor quickly assured, "I just…" The Doctor sighed. "I was just surprised how much you'd changed without me, and it scared me. It frightened the Hell out of me, to be honest. We've both changed over the past few years, and well… Jack and Silver talked to me, and I suppose all I am is afraid."

"I killed that Dalek because it was going to kill you," Rose explained gently, "And I couldn't bear to come all this way just to watch you leave."

"I know that," the Doctor said, smiling wanly, "You killed it because you loved me. I suppose that was what I was afraid of. I was afraid of your love. Nobody had ever loved me like that before, and I'd never felt such strong feelings back."

Rose looked at the Doctor passionately, "So you're saying…"

"But don't you see?" the Doctor roared, interrupting Rose's soft, unspoken sentence, "We can never be together. Not normally. You're human. I'm Time Lord. We're different. I live forever. You don't. Some day, you'll die, and I'll forever live with the guilt that I couldn't give you a better life, maybe a family, a house, with doors and carpets and all that. I can't give you that, Rose. What's the point of me? What's the point of being with me, of being my partner, to know that one day, you'll be gone and I'll be off with some other woman, looking just as young as I always have? Hm? How would that feel? Horrible? Ashamed?"

"Stop," Rose whispered, "Stop it."

"You'd be disgusted in me," the Doctor raged on, ignoring Rose's pleas, "You'll wonder why you didn't find another man, one that would only love you and only you. Once you look into my mind, Rose, really look into it, into the depths that even I can't bear to remember, you'll see what I am, and you'll run away and never look back."

The Doctor stopped, panting as he finally finished. He looked up from the ground and felt his heart shatter into a million pieces as Rose looked down at her shoes, weeping silently. He'd done it. He'd broken her and scared her away, just like all the other ones.

"Oh, Rose," the Doctor breathed, his voice soft again, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to get angry, I was just trying to explain why you-"

To the Doctor's astonishment, Rose reached out and grabbed the Doctor by his elbows. With a small yank, the Doctor was in Rose's arms, and she was embracing him tightly. He felt his hearts suddenly beat out a quick rhythm that Rose could probably feel, and his palms became clammy. She was holding him. After all he'd just said, she was holding him.

"Oh, Doctor," Rose sighed, pulling back from the embrace and looking up at the Doctor. Her arms still lingered on his elbows, and he felt small tingles of electricity go up his limbs and down his back.

"You must understand, Doctor, that I know what will happen once I die. I know that you'll be new, that you'll continue to live, just as young as before, but all I want to know is that I'll bring some joy, some happiness into your life, Doctor. I want you to be happy."

"Oh, Rose," the Doctor breathed, "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"But I want you to do one thing for me," Rose said, "When I last stood here, on this beach, on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me?"

The Doctor stared at Rose, slack-jawed.

"Go on. What was it?" Rose prodded.

"I-I said 'Rose Tyler'," the Doctor stammered.

"And how was that sentence going to end?"

The Doctor glanced at Jackie and Silver, who both raised an eyebrow and smirked at his shocked expression.

"C-Can't we wait until we're somewhere… private?" the Doctor begged. He heard Silver giggle and an angry mutter from Jackie Tyler.

"Somewhere where your mum isn't?" the Doctor asked hopefully.

"What?" Rose teased, "Scared of my mum?"

"Petrified," the Doctor agreed.

"Oh just go on and say it already before my brain explodes," Silver yelled, making both the Doctor and Rose blush profusely.

"Oh alright." The Doctor took a deep breath and shook the nerves out. Or, at least he tried to. Then, with all the courage he could muster up, he let go of his fears, his anxiety, his nightmares. He let go of all the what-ifs and the could-haves and the better-nots. He took Rose Tyler, his pink-and-yellow human, by her hands, and with the softest voice, yet the loudest at the same time, he said it.

"Rose Tyler, I love you."

And that was all she needed.

Rose eagerly took the Doctor by the lapels and closed the space between them, her lips instantly melding perfectly with his.

Everything stopped. The waves of Bad Wolf Bay stopped churning, as if waiting for permission before they could move again. The gulls stopped crying, as if keeping silent in awe of the couple before them. The Tardis stopped humming, finally knowing that she'd done her job. Silver stopped breathing, for she knew that the Doctor had finally done something right. Jackie did not even blink, and she felt a small rupture in her heart, because for the first time in her life, she knew that Rose would not come back.

It was that kind of a kiss. A kiss that made the sky seem bluer and the sand softer and the sun warmer. It was a kiss that was both the loudest and the softest at the same time. It could've made armies stop and wars end. It could've made even the saddest man in the world grin, and make the most despairing woman in the universe smile. It was such a passionate, beautiful kiss, that even Time herself had to stop in her tracks and behold the Time Lord and the human in awe and wonder.

It made the Doctor's knees tremble and Rose's legs twitch. It made the Time Lord's arms wrap around his companion and the human's body melt. It made the man breathe, "I love you" one more time and the woman smile under his lips.

It was that kind of a kiss.

Rose wanted it to last forever.

The Doctor never wanted to move again.

But unfortunately, Time realized her important duty and began to go again, and as she sped up with the Doctor and Rose, they found themselves interrupted by a small grumble from the Tardis.

"The universe," the Doctor said, breaking away from Rose. He instantly felt empty as he did so, but as she shifted around in his arms, that feeling of warmth and love enveloped him again, and he comfortably settled into their position.

"What about it?" Rose asked.

The Doctor looked up, gently brought his arms back to himself, and put them on Rose's shoulders. "It's patching itself up. We have to leave soon."

"But my mum…" Rose said, gazing back to Jackie Tyler.

"It's your choice whether you want to stay or not."

Rose looked at her mum, and back to the Doctor, who continued to stare at her with all the love and compassion he could possibly fit. Plus some. Yet, there was something missing. Suddenly, Rose knew what he was thinking. There was still that small inkling of doubt creeping in his mind, a small little thought that perhaps she wasn't going away with him after all. That she'd stay here, with her mum and her nephew and her new life. He still doubted.

"You promise me forever, right?" Rose asked.

The Doctor didn't bother hesitating. "I promise you forever."

With that, Rose left the Doctor's arms and raced up to her mum.

"I've made my decision," the younger Tyler said.

"You're choosing him," Jackie stated softly. Rose couldn't say any more. With racking sobs, she fell into her mum's arms, crying into her shoulder.

"I'm going to miss you," Rose cried, weeping loudly, "I'll think of you everyday, and I'll try to visit you from the past, and-"

"You two can still talk, y'know."

Whirling around, Rose and Jackie turned to face the Doctor.

"What?"

"I thought you said that the universe was patching up."

"I did."

"Then how can we…?"

"I can't promise that you two will physically be together, but…" The Doctor raced back to his Tardis and went inside. There was quite a bit of ruckus as the Time Lord shifted this and that. Then, he appeared back outside on the bay and handed Jackie Tyler a small device.

"Jack's teleport," the Doctor explained, setting it in Jackie's hand. Before either of the Tylers could question him, he whipped out his sonic and beamed it at the gadget.

"You won't be able to actually be in the same place, but you can still see each other, talk to each other, that sort of thing."

"Like that other time?" Rose asked.

"Yes, just like the time we were last here," the Doctor confirmed, "Except this time, you can stay for as long as you want."

Stepping back, the Doctor regarded Jackie seriously. "Don't try to toy with it or anything, or you could accidentally open the Void again. Jackie Tyler, I'm not promising that your daughter will necessarily be safe during our adventures, but I vow that I will protect her with my life if I have to. Will you trust me to keep your daughter safe? Forever?"

Jackie Tyler hesitated for a moment. Her eyes drifted from her daughter's back to the Doctor's, as if still deciding what the best choice was. Then, to both the enjoyment and the discomfort of the Doctor, Jackie reached forward and gave the Time Lord a big hug.

"Er, Jackie, are you alright?" the Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow down at the blond woman with his arms around him. It was certainly not the blonde he wanted hugging him.

"Oh, Doctor," Jackie said, sniffling a bit, "You promise you'll make her happy?"

"I promise."

"Then I agree," Jackie said, stepping back and smiling tearfully.

"Thank you."

There was a slight moment of silence, before Jackie suddenly stepped forward and gave the Doctor a resounding slap on the cheek.

"Ow!" the Doctor cried, dancing away from Jackie Tyler and rubbing his cheek painfully, "What was that for?"

"Whenever my daughter is crying or upset or angry or frustrated with you, just think of that slap, and remember that somewhere in another world, Jackie Tyler would be willing to rip apart the universes just to get to her daughter," Jackie said, looking quite threatening in her current stance.

Before the Doctor could respond with anything, the Tardis grumbled louder. The Doctor turned back to his time machine, motioned for her to wait just a few more moments, and looked back around to Silver.

"Ready to go, Silver?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, smiling. Turning, Silver took Jackie in her arms and gave her a small kiss on the cheek.

"Goodbye Mrs. Tyler," Silver said, grinning. Gripping Silver's hand, Jackie nodded warmly and stepped away.

"G'bye Mum," Rose called as the Doctor began to pull her and Silver back to the Tardis, "I promise to… er… teleport-call you as much as I can. Tell Tony goodbye and that I love him! And tell Jessie and Will that I'll miss them something terrible! Okay?"

"Anything else?" Jackie Tyler screamed.

"Yeah!"

"What?"

"Tell them I'll be watching _Sherlock _on the other side, too!"

"Oh, alright!" Jackie waved goodbye as the Doctor and the girls slipped into the Tardis. He turned around, gave Jackie a small salute, and shut the door behind him. The time machine began to dematerialize, its familiar _vworp, vworp, vworp_ becoming fainter and fainter with each second. Soon enough, the Tardis was completely gone, and the waves began to move again.

Jackie Tyler shook her head, sighing to herself. Then, she flipped open her cell phone and called her husband.

"Hey Pete? Can you get a cab? Over to Norway. Yes, Bad Wolf Bay again."

Jackie turned around and gazed at the small dent in the sand the Tardis had made during her short stay.

"No, just get me a cab. No need for a van. It's just me."

o.O.o

"So, ladies," the Doctor said, whirling around and grinning. His face fell as he noticed Rose's somber expression and Silver's gentle hand on her shoulder.

"What's wrong?"

"I miss her already," Rose said sadly.

"Do you want to teleport-call her now?" the Doctor asked, "I can go and get it set up if you want."

"No," Rose said, mustering up a warm smile that made the Doctor grin right back, "Let's just go somewhere."

"Where?" Silver asked.

"Somewhere far, far away," Rose said, grinning, "Maybe with a nice beach, a good town. There must be mystery, though. And interesting aliens, and suspicious foods to try, and there must be a lot of running to do."

The Doctor laughed. "I'll go get your old trainers."


	15. Chapter 15

Silver sighed as she stared across the kitchen table at the young couple, currently spooning cereal into each other's mouths as they conversed in quiet, giggly whispers. Blowing her hair away from her face, Silver quietly stood up and placed the leftovers of her breakfast in the sink. She'd never been fond of Fruit Loops. Rose and the Doctor failed to notice as Silver inconspicuously slipped out of the room.

Feeling like a heavy weight, Silver dragged herself to her room. It was rather plain compared to the other habitations of the time machine due to her lack of resources, but Silver had managed to add a bit of spark to the room with various souvenirs she'd collected on her trips with the Doctor. A bright yellow rock from the volcanoes of planet Snush sat on a shelf. A wooden doll covered by a series of not-quite-velvet cloths smiled at Silver on her bedside table.

Silver lay down on her bed and looked up at the white ceiling. The Tardis was still quietly drifting through the Time Vortex, even though all her travelers had been awake for a considerable amount of time. In fact, Silver had a feeling that it'd be a while before the Doctor remembered to pick a destination. This had happened two times already, and Silver was becoming frustrated.

Two weeks had passed since Rose stepped on board the Tardis again, and ever since, their regular routine had been thrown out the window. The amount of hair-raising, fear-inducing, and exciting trips Silver and the Doctor usually went on had slowly diminished to a zero. The Doctor and Rose had a lot to catch up on, and apparently, the only convenient places to do so were on tropical islands and high-end resorts. At first, Silver had enjoyed the rich, fancy places the Doctor chose for their trips, but it soon became monotonous to spend every day either cooped up in a time machine or sitting on a beach chair on a sunny island watching the Doctor and Rose honeymoon together.

It wasn't that Silver didn't like Rose. In fact, she quite enjoyed being in the company of the older girl. Silver had never had any siblings growing up, and Rose had become a sort of older sister to her. No, Silver didn't dislike Rose at all. Silver was simply, of all things, bored.

When she'd first agreed to travel with the Doctor, it had been quite clear that Silver would be babysitting the Time Lord. Sure he constantly seemed to be saving them from angry, tribal aliens ready to cut their throats out, but when the adventures ended, Silver took on the job of the adult, pulling the Doctor away from bar fights and gangs. Sometimes, she'd be too late and have to spend another day or two healing the Doctor from any wounds or injuries. This had been Silver's life for the past few months, and she'd gotten used to it.

However, ever since Rose arrived, there was no more need for Silver to care for the Doctor. He hadn't touched an alcoholic drink for more than two weeks, already setting the standards high. When Silver slept, she was no longer awakened by the Doctor's painful sobs. After all, he shared a room with Rose now. In fact, with the way the Doctor gazed at Rose's belly with such fascination, Silver had a feeling that the couple's nights together were going swimmingly.

However, Silver was feeling more isolated and lonely each day. She didn't blame the Doctor or Rose. They were together. She was happy for them. The Doctor had shown her so much, and without him, she'd probably still be some boring old Californian girl with no idea what the future held. She'd met people from the past, aliens from the future. She'd traveled to lands lost in time and to worlds not yet discovered. But, ever since joining the Doctor, Silver's job on the Tardis had been to care for him, and now that Rose was here, she found the number of her responsibilities waning. The Doctor didn't need any more babysitting. He'd grown up. Silver had finished her job, and she'd done it well, too.

Nevertheless, Silver knew that her time on the Tardis was coming to an end. Without anybody to care for, she was slowly becoming bored. The Doctor had Rose now, and with Silver on board, it would only make things awkward. The situation was similar to a friend rooming with a honeymooning couple. Plus, Silver had her own life to worry about. She was supposed to go to college, and even though she was on a time machine, Silver was still aging, and an extra two months had passed since the day she was supposed to move in to her dorm. Silver did not want to add to that wasted time any more. She was aging every day, and someday, it was going to be evident that she was not an eighteen year-old college freshman. It would be easier to leave quickly than to prolong the inevitable.

Thus, with a heavy heart, Silver pulled out an enormous duffle bag from her closet, the very same one she'd used when she first moved into the Tardis. After emptying the bag of any miscellaneous items, Silver began to pack her things. The chore didn't take long, and after only one hour, all of her clothes, toiletries, and other knick-knacks she'd picked up during her stay were stuffed into the duffle bag. With a grunt, Silver picked up her luggage and dragged it out the door, down the hall, and into the control room.

She found Rose and the Doctor in front of the console together. The Doctor was explaining to his companion what specific knobs and buttons did, but Rose didn't seem to be listening as she gazed at the Time Lord lovingly. Silver cleared her throat, and the young couple instantly looked up from the dashboard.

"Silver!" the Doctor said, brightening, "I was just talking to Rose about our next trip. A resort on the planet Michestina. You'll love it! Banana leaf massages, sea salt spas, and a great view of the pink ocean."

Silver grinned weakly as the Doctor continued to prattle on about the Tardis's next stop. It was going to be a lot harder to leave than Silver expected. She was already missing the Doctor's loud, obnoxious banter that had once made her grit her teeth and scowl at the oblivious Time Lord.

"And there's this brilliant fishing trip with miniature whales and… Silver, what've you got there?"

The Doctor's eyes fell on the bulging black duffle bag at Silver's feet.

"Did the washing machines break down again?" the Doctor asked, unconscious of Silver's intent, "No bother. I'm sure we can find something for you at Michestina."

"Doctor," Rose said, stepping forward and placing a hand on the Time Lord's arm. She seemed to know what Silver was about to do, and Silver silently thanked Rose for helping. Unlike Rose, however, the Doctor remained unaware of the situation, and he continued to talk.

"They treat your clothes with this special citrus fruit found only in their southern forests. It literally makes your clothing smell like a fragrant flower, and it bleaches all your whites perfectly."

"Doctor," Silver began, but she was quickly cut off by the Doctor once more.

"Which reminds me," the Doctor said, "We'll need to buy more detergent. The Tardis is running out. Oh, and we'll need more bananas, too. Goodness, I'll need to make a list."

"Doctor, I'm sure that's great, but-" Silver's words were rapidly cut short with the Doctor's nonstop monologue.

"Hmm, what else are we short on? Sugar? Nope, I just got a bag a few days ago. Or was that salt? Can't be too sure. I suppose I'll have to check. Say, is there any toilet paper left? I'm pretty sure the northern bathroom has been out for quite a while."

Silver sighed and puffed up her chest. Then, with all the volume in her small body, the young girl screamed, "DOCTOR!"

The Time Lord immediately shut his mouth, staring at Silver questioningly.

"What is it?"

"I have something to tell you," Silver said quietly.

"Well why didn't you just say so?" the Doctor asked cheerfully, "What is it then?"

"I-I…" Silver barely stammered through the first word before a lump caught in her throat. The Doctor watched curiously as Silver choked and swallowed nervously.

"I was th-thinking that maybe…"

This time, the fluttering in Silver's stomach caught in her esophagus, and the girl coughed into her hand. _Goodness gracious, you can't even make it through one sentence, can you, you idiot_, Silver thought to herself angrily. Standing up a bit straighter, Silver took a deep breath and looked the Doctor in the eye.

"I was thinking that maybe I've been on the Tardis for too long."

The Doctor's complexion quickly became pale as he straightened. His jaw dropped and his eyes turned large as he ran a worried hand through his hair. All of his companions had always left one way or another, but it was never so abrupt. The Doctor knew that Silver enjoyed their travels together, and he was shocked at how willing she seemed to go.

Unlike the Doctor, who seemed to be rooted to the ground, Rose stepped forward and tilted her head to the side.

"Why?" the blond woman asked, "I thought you liked traveling with the Doctor."

"I do. Believe me. It's been the greatest experience ever. If I could, I'd stay forever, but I can't. I've got college."

"But this is a time machine," the Doctor blurted out, "You could be gone for ten years and I'd still be able to get you back in time."

"Yeah, but being on the Tardis doesn't stop my aging," Silver argued, "Sure I'll be back in time, but I won't necessarily be the same age, right? We can't fix that."

"But why today? Why not next month? Not much will have changed then. You'll be the same. One more month, please?"

"Doctor," Silver said sternly, "It has to be now. I don't feel right putting it off any longer. You knew my visit would be short, and stalling will just make it worse. I don't want one month to turn into one year, and one year to turn into one lifetime, and I can't afford to make a mistake like that one. I've already been gone longer than I should have, and extending my stay wouldn't be a good choice."

"But I need you," the Doctor begged desperately. He now looked very worried. "What if I get in a fight again, or if I start drinking, or if I-"

"Doctor, you haven't touched any alcohol for the past two weeks," Silver interrupted, "I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Two weeks isn't that long. What if you leave and I go out tonight? What if-"

"Doctor," Silver said stoutly, "Look to your left."

In a daze of confusion and worry, the Doctor turned his head. His eyes settled on Rose, who stood next to the console raising an eyebrow at the Time Lord. Turning back to Silver, the Doctor frowned.

"What's wrong with Rose? Is it because she's here? Are you jealous?"

"I am not jealous," Silver replied calmly, "Not at all. In fact, she's almost like a big sister to me now. The problem is that when I first came here, I had a job. You were lost, Doctor, and hurting and in pain, and it was my responsibility to numb your grief. When you went out drinking, I was there to help with your hangover. When you got in a fight, I was there to tend to your wounds. Your side-tracking, your loss of logic, was over Rose, wasn't it?"

The Doctor remained silent at Silver's question, his jaw shut tight.

"But now that she's here, you're not sad anymore. You're happy, which means I've done a good job, but that also means that I've got no responsibilities anymore. It's now Rose's task to make sure you're happy, and to comfort you when you're sad. To put it simply, I've been replaced."

Rose started at Silver's statement. "Silver, I-"

"Don't," Silver quickly said, "I'm not blaming you for anything. It's your turn to take care of the Doctor now. I'm done. There's no point for me to be traveling here anymore when I've got a whole life ahead of me down on Earth. I miss my family and my friends, and I wouldn't give up the chance to go to college for anything."

"Silver," the Doctor said, looking sad, "Was it me? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you're fine," Silver assured, "I just need to live my own life."

"Doctor," Rose said, giving the Time Lord a meaningful look. The Doctor bit his bottom lip and scratched the back of his neck. He met eyes with Rose, who nodded and gestured to Silver patiently. With a small sigh, the Doctor stepped forward and gave Silver a tight embrace.

"You can still visit," she quickly said, stepping back from the hug, "I'm going east to Pennsylvania. You guys will love it there."

"I'm sure we will," Rose agreed.

The Doctor took Silver's duffle bag and set it down at the door of the Tardis. Looking back at his soon-to-be ex-companion, he smiled wanly and pulled down a lever on the time machine's dashboard. Lights began to flash as the Tardis whirred to life and began to shake.

"Next stop, California."

o.O.o

"You sure you know where to go?" the Doctor asked worriedly as they stepped outside the Tardis. He'd stopped at a parking lot behind a shopping structure devoid of any cars or vehicles. It was a short walk from there to Silver's house, and she knew the area well, but the Doctor still fretted.

"I told you," Silver replied, rolling her eyes, "It's right down the road. It's only five minutes walking."

"I could park you closer," the Doctor began, "On your lawn or even in your room."

Silver shook her head. "My dad's on a business trip to Chicago, but my grandparents are probably home. They'll see. I told them I was going to a sleepover, remember? It'll be weird if I just appeared in my room."

"You'll be safe?" the Doctor asked, "You won't need any money? Food? I could always pop back and get you a banana."

Silver smiled. "I'm fine, but now that you mention it…"

The Doctor brightened. "Great, I'll just go to the kitchen and-"

"No," Silver said, "I don't want to eat. It's just about our deal."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Deal? What deal?"

"I can't believe you forgot about it. Remember? Our deal back at Bad Wolf Bay? I promised you that I'd make you some of my Banana Nut Muffin Bread. Oh, and with Smashalian bananas and Willhelminian nuts, too."

The Doctor's mouth began to salivate as he licked his lips. "Did you make it?"

Silver nodded, grinning at the Doctor's ecstatic reaction. He grinned wildly, giving her a view of his teeth. The Doctor leapt up and punched his arm in the air victoriously. Then, as if just realizing that Silver was watching him, the Doctor regained his composure and nodded gravely.

"So you used the Willhelminian nuts, hm? I thought you were afraid of those."

"Well, duh," Silver said, "They've got pointy teeth. This big one almost chomped my finger off."

"Ah," the Doctor replied, nodding. Then, after a small silence, the Time Lord raised his eyebrows and asked, "How many did you make?"

"Five loaves."

"Just five?"

"Now worries!" Silver quickly responded, "I left the recipe under the plate."

"But you said you never gave your Banana Nut Muffin Bread recipe out to people," the Doctor said.

Silver shrugged. "I thought I could make an exception. Just don't tell anybody about it, and I'll be fine."

The Doctor nodded. Silver grinned and reached for a hug, and the Doctor gladly responded with the embrace. He wrapped his arms around the young girl tightly. He'd miss Silver. There was not quite anybody out in the universe like her, and she was a great companion. He knew he'd visit. He'd probably go meet her every chance he could, with Rose's permission, of course. The Doctor knew Silver would be spectacular. Why, the Tardis had said it herself. Silver would go on to do great things.

"You were brilliant," the Doctor said, smiling and stepping away.

Silver laughed. "I know."

Then, with a small wave, Silver turned around and began the short trek back to her house. The black duffle bag was slung over her shoulder, and her hair spilled freely down her back as a lazy Californian breeze blew through. She already seemed more relaxed, more comfortable, and she'd only been home for a few minutes.

Nodding his approval, the Doctor stepped back into the Tardis.

"Is she gone?" Rose asked as the Doctor shut the door behind him.

"Yeah, she left." However, the Doctor did not stop to talk with Rose. He continued on through the Tardis, down the northern corridor, and into the kitchen. Then, after a small pause, a series of bangs and clanging was heard down the hall.

"Uh, Doctor? You alright in there?" Rose asked, standing up from the captain's seat in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just taking a bite out of Silver's Banana Nut Muffin- Hey!"

"What's wrong?" Rose yelled, running down the corridor and into the kitchen.

"I can't believe it!"

"What?" Rose asked, stepping into the kitchen.

"She didn't use them!" the Doctor cried, holding up a plate of brown, mouth-watering loaves with steam still rising from the tops.

"What didn't she use?" Rose asked, "It looks fine to me."

"The Willhelminian nuts! She never used them. She tricked me!" the Doctor said, looking baffled. Rose fought to stifle a giggle as the Doctor turned a few loaves over, as if his precious nuts were hiding at the bottom of the breads.

"She used Markonian berries instead," the Doctor said, shaking his head and setting the plate down. He pulled out a kitchen chair and took a seat, staring at the plate in shock. Rose was just beginning to become seriously concerned for the Doctor's sanity when he began to chuckle.

"You alright there?" she asked worriedly.

"Markonian berries. Who knew?" the Doctor said, taking a small crumb off of the edge of a loaf and popping it into his mouth, "That Silver is going to do great things."


	16. Epilogue

Silver sat in the gray folding chair, uncomfortably pulling at her black robes and tugging on her hat. Oh, if only graduation could go a bit faster. She was beginning to sweat under that hot black hat, and they'd barely started the Bachelor degrees.

"Mark Henry Cochran."

Ugh, could graduation go any slower? There were just so many people graduating, too many for Silver's case. She'd been sitting in the same seat for over two hours now, and they'd just begun to call up those who'd gotten Bachelor degrees. The Doctorates and the Masters had already gone, and Silver felt a pang of jealousy for the upperclassmen. They were so lucky to be done.

"Helen Sophia Dabernathy."

Fortunately, she'd be going home soon. In approximately ten hours, Silver would board a plane that would take her from Pennsylvania to California, a long flight that would take five hours or so. It was so funny. It seemed like just yesterday she was a freshman going to the University of Pennsylvania for the first time, meeting her roommate, and learning where her classes would take place. Now, she was graduating, and in another few weeks, she'd be going to a research facility in London for Biology students. Then, when that program was done, she'd come back to Pennsylvania, take another few years of classes, perhaps endure more graduations, and finally, she just might receive her Doctorate and become an actual doctor.

It was funny, how time seemed to fly.

"Stanley Morgan Danborder."

And Silver, of all people, knew just how fast time seemed to go. Sometimes, it seemed as if her life here was traveling faster than it would have on the Tardis. Yes, she missed the Doctor and his antics aboard his magical blue box, but she wanted a life where she didn't have to worry about aliens or spaceships or planets. She yearned for normalcy, for a life where she'd get married, have children, and maybe even grandchildren. In fact, she was going to go out to dinner tonight with her boyfriend, and he did mention that it would be important.

It was funny, how time seemed to fly.

"Silver Andromeda Danders."

At her name, Silver leapt from her seat and tried not to look too excited as she walked across the stage to receive her diploma. As she shook hands with the dean, her eyes roamed the audience, trying to find her father in the sea of people. He said he'd come, but she hadn't found him yet. Silver's eyes passed over dozens of people, but none of them looked familiar.

Suddenly, Silver paused, her hand still gripping the dean's in midshake. In fact, her clench on his wrist had become tighter, and the sullen man seemed to look like he wanted to pull away from the student's freeze.

However, Silver didn't care that she was cutting off the circulation of her school dean. Her eyes were only on two figures in the crowd, standing and smiling at her.

"Doctor," Silver whispered, and the dean raised an eyebrow.

And yes, there he stood, standing in the bleachers in a smart brown suit, a brown trench coat, and red trainers. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, and his hair twitched and waved in the breeze. Rose stood next to him, and in her arms there was a – Oh my goodness – a baby. She smiled warmly and waved the child's pudgy hand at Silver.

Silver's mouth dropped open, and she couldn't seem to form any words.

"Ahem. Miss Danders?" Silver quickly whipped around to the dean, who frowned at her lack of attention and nodded to the professor at the end of the stage waiting for her to take her diploma and move on.

"Oh, sorry, I'm so sorry. Excuse me. Sorry," Silver stammered. A few students in the front giggled at her, but Silver was too shocked to care. She practically sprinted to the professor, tripping over her robes. With an apologetic smile, Silver grabbed the diploma from her professor's hand and swept off the stage, searching the crowd for the Doctor and Rose. She somehow made it to her row, but her hands shook as she scanned the crowd for the Time Lord and his companion.

"Silver, sit down."

Silver looked to her side to find a fellow classmate raising an eyebrow apprehensively. Nodding dumbly, Silver found her seat and craned her neck to look for the Doctor. He was gone. They both were, their spots taken by a wailing baby and her mother.

"Silver, you okay?"

"He's gone?"

"Excuse me?"

Silver looked at her friend, who seemed worried and confused. Then, her ears pricked at a very familiar sound.

_VWORP. VWORP. VWORP. _

Silver grinned.

_VWORP. VWORP. VWORP. _

"Silver, are you sure you're okay?"

_VWORP. VWORP. VWORP. _

Brightening considerably, Silver leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs.

"Silver?" Her friend looked really worried now.

"Don't worry," Silver said, grinning, "I'm fine. I am absolutely, positively brilliant."

* * *

><p><strong>Well, everybody, that's a wrap. I hope you've enjoyed <em>Oh, Doctor<em>. I certainly have had fun writing it. Don't worry, though, I'll be sure to have a new project up soon, and I'm hoping it'll be longer than my other fanfics. **

**Thank you so much for following the Doctor, Silver, and Rose in their latest adventure. I really appreciate all the good feedback I've gotten. Stay tuned for more fanfics!  
><strong>

****Hugs and butterfly kisses, **  
>Helen<strong>


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